Regional Food Safety Manager - Americas

At Barry Callebaut, we are on a journey to transform the cocoa and chocolate industry. As the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, our actions truly shape the future of our industry. We are a business-to-business company, serving the entire food sector, from the cocoa bean to the finest chocolate product. We are a company with a purpose, we believe in doing well by doing good and reinvesting in the communities we operate.

We have a long-standing commitment to sustainability and our goal is to shape a sustainable cocoa and chocolate future. We are headquartered in Zurich, and have more than 12,000 passionate Employees working in more than 40 countries worldwide. We are very proud of who we are and what we do. And of course, we are always looking for talented people to help us have a positive impact on our industry and beyond!

Barry Callebaut is a global organization poised for growth; a company which has embraced the vision to delight its customers, while out-performing its competitors, a business which is committed to sustainability, has innovation in its DNA, is a leader in complex manufacturing and supply chain solutions and is focused on being a best-in-class employer. Barry Callebaut seeks diverse and passionate people who thrive in a dynamic environment, focused on continuous learning, living Barry Callebaut’s Values and of course loving chocolate.

The Regional Food Safety Manager Americas is responsible for keeping abreast of changes in technology and processes and ensuring compliance for the facilities in the Americas region to Barry Callebaut food safety policies, standards, and procedures as needed to ensure that regulatory, GFSI certification and customer requirements concerning food safety are achieved or exceeded. The Food Safety Manager Americas links and collaborates with Plant QA managers, Engineering, Plant managers, Regional R&D, Regional OSCO VP, Global Account manager, Business Development Director, Regional Quality director, Global Head Food Safety and microbiology, Global Engineering, Global Microbiology, Global QA (Vendor & Rawmat), Sanitation & Hygiene managers, and with similar stakeholders from all the other regions (Africa, Americas, Asia, Cocoa).

Externally with external customers, training organizations, suppliers, and service providers including but not limited to pest control operators, metal detector manufacturers, sanitarians, and industry consultants.

• Develop and execute a comprehensive regional food safety strategy that aligns with product needs, corporate objectives and regulatory requirements.
• Provide visionary leadership to continuously improve food safety systems, ensuring alignment with industry best practices and emerging trends.

• Oversee the design, implementation, and maintenance of aligned food safety programs, including HACCP, EMP programs, foreign material management, microbiology, allergen and toxicology compliance; tailored to regional needs.
• Standardize processes and procedures across facilities to achieve consistent food safety performance.
• Ensure on-going risk assessments to identify potential & emerging food safety hazards and implement preventive controls.
• Conduct risk assessment on any new project or initiative launched cross functionally.
• Monitor and respond to emerging food safety risks, including regulatory changes and industry developments, to ensure proactive compliance.
• Conduct site gap assessments on HACCP, EMP management and provide technical support to sites in arriving at mitigation/management strategies.
• Ensure gaps from different audits and observations are correctly identified, root cause investigations done, corrections and corrective actions identified with appropriate owners together with deadlines and ensure systematic follow up and escalations to ensure closure and compliance.

• Contribute to the building of global food safety standards.
• Act as the regional expert on interpretation on the…