Food Safety and Quality Assurance Officer

The Food Safety and Quality Assurance Officer supports the implementation of WFP's food safety and quality assurance approach in Yemen, ensuring compliance with standards and regulations throughout the supply chain. The role involves collaboration with internal and external stakeholders to manage quality risks and support food assistance delivery.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical inputs to assist with the implementation of policies and procedures that align WFP’s FSQA approach with FSQA and supply chain strategies, and support compliance with FSQA regulations.
• Draft specific inputs related to the design and implementation of WFP food assistance programmes, ensuring that food safety and quality is embedded in all food-related WFP operations.
• Implement corporate FSQA incident management and emergency response protocols by gathering information for drafting of documentations for risk and incident management, assist with investigations to support rapid response to food safety concerns, and share lessons learned to reduce re-occurrences.
• Follow WFP FSQA regulations in the organization of field operations systems for the prevention and mitigation of FSQA issues, including participating in drafting product specifications, support communication with regulatory authorities, and contribute to the implementation of processes for supplier assessment and compliance testing.
• Provide technical inputs to supply chain colleagues, within the area of assignment, to support maintaining and monitoring food safety and quality throughout the WFP supply chain.
• Liaise with counterparts across UN agencies, NGOs, governments, and the private sector to identify and compile relevant sources of data for operational collaboration.
• Participate in FSQA assurance and packaging research required for implementing WFP FSQA guidelines and regulations. This includes sample collections, compiling and reviewing data and literature, and organizing consultations.
• Liaise with WFP staff, partners, and governments to contribute to efforts aimed at strengthening the capacity of local food producers, including supporting quality assurance in food production and compiling data on food processing machinery needs.
• Assist the country office’s operations to build the capacity of food and food control systems, including laboratory testing, inspection, and strengthening local food standards and control systems.
• Assist FSQA-related initiatives in the country office, such as strengthening food systems, improving food diversity for nutrition interventions, supporting home-grown school feeding, pro-smallholder farmers procurement, and post-harvest losses reduction.
• Strengthen the capacity of WFP staff, Cooperating partners, suppliers/service providers, government and other stakeholders to enhance compliance with food safety and quality requirements/protocols and standards through capacity strengthening initiatives.
• Collect and organize data to support the preparation of reports that inform planning and decision making, contributing to a knowledge base that supports improvements in FSQA and overall Supply Chain.
• Act in an assigned emergency response capacity as required to meet emergency food assistance needs.

Requirements

• Advanced university degree in Food Technology, Food Sciences, Nutrition or other related field, or First University degree with two additional years of related work experience.
• Total relevant 5 years of experience including 1 year of professional experience in food safety and quality.
• Experience in procurement, logistics, and/or supply chain management is desirable.
• Knowledge of and experience with the Yemen food safety and quality regulatory environment and protocols.
• Experience or training in food safety and quality protocols, with basic exposure to implementing tools or procedures within operational contexts.
• Experience with data collection and analysis, using insights to monitor trends and support decision-making or operational activities (desirable).
• Worked in collaborative team environments, contributing to tasks across different functional areas and supporting emergency or time-sensitive operations (desirable).
• Languages required: English and Arabic.

Skills

• Food Safety Protocols
• Quality Assurance
• Food Technology
• Food Sciences
• Nutrition
• Supply Chain Management
• Procurement
• Logistics Management
• Food Safety Compliance
• Data Collection
• Data Analysis
• Trend Monitoring
• Operational Food Safety
• Food Quality Management
• Stakeholder Collaboration
• Emergency Operations

Languages

English, Arabic