Associate, Compliance - Food Safety

Job Summary

The Compliance Associate will assist with maintaining, conceptualizing, building, and implementing Dollarama’s food preventive control plan. They will be knowledgeable and current on all legislation surrounding food safety issues in Canada and will anticipate developments and recommend responsive measures. The incumbent will assist with managing food safety and quality through the entire product lifecycle, ensuring compliance and adherence to governmental requirements. This role also involves being responsible for leading safety and quality investigations in response to customer complaints or mandatory regulatory actions for products sold by Dollarama. The Compliance Associate will play a key role in ensuring Dollarama’s food products meet and exceed quality and safety standards for their customers.

Key Accountabilities

• Maintain and ensure the seamless operation of the Dollarama Preventive Control Plan in compliance with Canadian requirements;
• Work collaboratively with internal stakeholders such as buyers, members of the legal department and vendors to support new product procurement process and complete regulatory evaluation for new items;
• Investigate food quality and safety issues raised internally, or by government agencies;
• Initiate and follow up on corrective actions as required. Act with speed and efficiency during investigations and ensure timely resolution in collaboration with buyers and vendors;
• Write investigation reports and provide corrective actions to CFIA as applicable;
• Act as a key member for food product recalls or withdrawals;
• Collect and review technical labels, evaluate packaging, product formulations and claims documentation to ensure the compliant labeling of products against the appropriate regulations, guidelines and internal standards;
• Remain up to date on food safety and quality trends and proactively stay abreast of new regulations, assessing their business impact, and determining suitable implementation timelines with the team;
• Conduct sample evaluation as part of the Food Control Plan or as required during product investigations to ensure product quality consistency and determine on-going acceptability standards of existing products; and
• Participate in manufacturing site technical visits and complete visit checklists. Follow up on observations and actions required and issuing status update reports.

Job Requirements

• University degree, diploma, or DEC in Food Science, Nutrition, Chemistry or similar;
• Minimum three (3) years of progressive experience in food safety or quality assurance, gained within food retail or related manufacturing environments with multi-commodity perishable products;
• Extensive knowledge and understanding of the Canadian Food & Drugs Act, the Safe Food for Canadians Act as well as regulations adopted under them;
• Strong knowledge of HACCP and Food Safety requirements;
• Experience in product recalls and crisis management;
• Ability to research regulatory issues and provide recommendations for resolution;
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, combined with the ability to work in a fast paced and high-volume environment; and 
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.