The Product Specialist provides comprehensive support to Corporate and Plant Food Safety and Quality teams. This role is responsible for ingredient specification database management, ingredient and meal approvals, Ingredient-related customer complaint investigations, review, development, and approval of ingredient specifications, and overall ingredient onboarding and maintenance. The role also focuses on ensuring Ready-to-Heat (RTH) and Dietician Approved meal reviews, and TraceGains implementation are managed seamlessly. The Product Specialist collaborates closely with cross-functional teams such as Supply Chain, Culinary, and Production to ensure ingredient and product timelines are met. This role also provides basic onboarding for new ingredients, manages specification documentation, and tracks customer complaints for both RTH and E-Commerce. This role will be trained as a back up to some labeling activities.

Detailed Responsibilities

Ingredient Review & Approvals:

• Maintain organization and accuracy of Home Chef’s specification and Admin system
• Perform ingredient risk assessments on all ingredients prior to approval, documenting risk assessment in accordance with Home Chef’s policies
• Approve ingredients to be added to Home Chef’s pantry by reviewing ingredient attributes including but not limited to: allergens, ingredient statements, nutritional statements, storage requirements, shelf life, etc.
• Become subject matter expert for all Home Chef ingredient categories: protein, dairy, dry goods/grocery, produce, bulk, and pre-portioned
• Conduct Compound Ingredient Reviews and Approvals for both Ready-to-Heat (RTH) and Ready-to-Eat (RTE) products.
• Perform weekly ingredient and meal reviews.
• Work with TraceGains to manage item-level reviews and implement new systems related to ingredient and meal tracking.
• Review and approve compound ingredients as created by culinary team according to Home Chef’s requirements
• Responsible for conducting a secondary verification of all of the information for a compound ingredient uploaded into Admin, ensuring it is accurate and in accordance with all food safety requirements.

Specification Review & Development:

• Partner with Supply Chain, New Product Development and Culinary to review supplier specifications, compare specifications to Home Chef’s specification expectations, and work with suppliers on updates as required
• Develop specifications for custom ingredients and/or produce ingredients, sharing with the appropriate cross-functional teams and suppliers as necessary
• Manage and maintain the Ingredient Specification system, including the development and approval of custom specifications and supplier collaborations.
• Ensure all relevant IHA documents are maintained and up-to-date for compliance and operational efficiency.

Supplier Customer Complaint Investigations:

• Partner with Operations and Food Supply Chain to investigate ingredient-related customer complaints tied to supplier-provided materials (e.g., off-quality, foreign material, packaging defects).
• Lead complaint root cause analysis by consolidating internal feedback (plant-level observations, customer images, complaint trends) and engaging suppliers for investigation responses and corrective action documentation.
• Collaborate with Procurement to ensure complaint frequency and severity are communicated to suppliers during business reviews and performance evaluations.
• Maintain and update the supplier complaint tracking system to ensure all responses, resolutions, and trends are documented for audit readiness and KPI reporting.
• Identify patterns in complaint data and escalate to cross-functional teams for preventive action (e.g., reformulation, sourcing shifts, or packaging redesign).

Product Onboarding & Documentation:

• Facilitate the onboarding process for new add-on products and ingredients, ensuring proper specification setup and communication with cross-functional teams.
• Oversee the implementation of TraceGains for better ingredient tracking and data collection.
• Responsible for conducting a secondary verification of all of the information for a RTH meal uploaded into Admin, ensuring it is accurate and in accordance with all food safety requirements.
• Review meals and route for final label review and approval process

Labeling Activity Support:

• Serve as a back-up for various labeling activities including but not limited to: allergen meal bag labels, emergency stickers and/or packaging creation, meal card review
• Assist with miscellaneous FSQA tasks as needed to support ongoing projects and audits.

Miscellaneous:

• Other tasks as assigned
• Production site visits
• Some weekend coverage for shorts & replacements

This position requires 10% travel.

Qualifications

The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability needed for this role. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities.

• Completion of a four-year degree program in a related field: Life Sciences, Food Science, Nutrition & Dietetics, or related field
• Minimum 2-3 years experience in quality assurance, food safety, food distribution, food manufacturing, food supply chain, or related field
• Working knowledge of FDA and USDA labeling requirements including ingredient statements, nutritional fact panels, and allergen declarations
• Strong analytical skills, able to make data driven decisions
• Exceptional written, verbal and interpersonal skills
• Self-starter who is results-oriented, resourceful, pragmatic and takes initiative
• Takes high level of ownership over work, highly organized
• Capable of handling multiple responsibilities at once
• Demonstrated ability to embrace change and learn quickly in a fast-paced environment

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