Alumnus testimonial
Alumnus Emmanuel - MSc Food Safety
Emmanuel is originally from Ghana. He completed the Master Food Safety, specialisation Applied Food Safety.
There is a lot to learn on the field on the job itself.
Current role
Emmanuel works at Mead Johnson in Nijmegen. He has been in several roles over the past few years but is now currently working as a Quality By Design Engineer. In that role, he is mainly in change of the organisation’s standard testing and operating procedures. For example, making sure that they are always up to date with current legislation, regulating or marketing requirements.
It’s crucial that he keeps the company up to date with the new changes in limits or specifications of materials being used in a products. Due to the fact that their main market is in China, Emmanuel is also in charge of the additional audits that take place for them, ensuring that the products delivered to them meet the necessary requirements in terms of sanitation and nutrient specifications.
Favourite aspect of the job
Training new colleagues is very interactive, engaging and fulfilling!
Besides his main role as a Quality By Design Engineer, Emmanual also is involved in training new employees. Whenever a new employee starts, they get oriented within the company and get familiarized within different departments. Emmanuel is in charge of the training within the quality department. For that role, he greets new colleagues, takes them around the factory and shows them how things work. Emmanuel likes that it’s interactive, engaging and very fulfilling.
Challenges and opportunities in the Food Safety sector
Getting the right people for the job remains a challenge.
Emmanuel sees a major challenge in the fact that there is a shortage of well-trained food safety professionals in the sector. In his company, there are there are a lot of open vacancies for the quality department. Getting the right people remains difficult. This creates a challenge for him and his colleagues because it leads to a lot of extra work pressure at time.
On the same side, this does provide a big opportunity to recent graduates of food safety programs that there are a lot of vacancies, also for internships, out there needing to be filled.
Advice to aspiring Food Safety professionals
When people are applying for job, they should be open and willing to learn as much as possible.
Emmanuel recommends that students really make full use of their MSc internship. There are so many good opportunities within companies for interns and it is a very good first step for entry level people.
Furthermore, he knows many MFS graduates that were offered a full time position at the company where they interned. Also, the learning does not stop when you finish your degree. There is a lot to learn on the field on the job itself, so when people are applying for job, they should be open to learn as much as possible. The expertise will come, but that only comes through trying new things and learning new things.