Industry Experiences

Quality Assurance - As a current corporate quality specialist for a major chicken tender restaurant chain, my duties include maintaining quality through all phases of poultry development, testing, implementation, and production. I am responsible for establishing quality metrics and standards with suppliers, distributors, and restaurants to ensure adherence to specification. I organize and conduct routine quality evaluations on poultry products and communicate results directly to my Supply Chain team, R&D team, and the poultry plants I manage. I actively manage multiple poultry supplier accounts totaling 1,000,000 pounds of chicken per week and build strong relationships at the plant level. I build relationships at the plant level through monthly quality call and in-person plant visits. Additionally, I am responsible for following up with suppliers in the event of a quality issue and ensure corrective actions are put in place to prevent future quality outbreaks.

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points - I obtained HACCP training through a course at Texas A&M University. This includes developing, implementing and monitoring HACCP systems and plans for food manufacturing facilities.

Meat Science - My meat science knowledge and training include… meats judging and evaluation| quality and yield grading | slaughter techniques | carcass fabrication | food microbiology | meat product development (formulations) | muscle ultrastructure | meat marketing and labeling | fat analysis | pH testing | color testing | moisture testing | factors affecting slaughter/carcass/meat quality and merit | fresh meats | processed meats | value-added meats.

Animal Science - My animal science knowledge and training includes… animal behavior | animal welfare | animal reproduction | animal breeding | animal nutrition | animal feed formulating | basic beef cattle production | basic poultry science | wool evaluation and grading | palpation | semen collection | blood drawing | euthanasia | laboratory animal handling | laboratory animal care

Sensory Science - My sensory science experience includes developing, conducting, and analyzing consumer, descriptive, and discriminative tests and identifying specific and distinct taste attributes in chicken tenders.