Internship, Food Safety & Quality Standards - International Fertilizer Development Center

IFDC is a multinational and independent non-profit organization with over 46 years of experience in profitable and sustainable crop production approaches by combining innovative research, market system development and strategic partnerships to spread sustainable agricultural solutions for improved soil health, agricultural productivity and food security and livelihoods in developing countries and around the world. IFDC has over the years built a solid network of agro-input producers, dealers, farmers, farmer-based organizations, off-takers and processers around the globe.

Position Statement of Purpose

IFDC is seeking an outgoing and freethinking candidate who is motivated to work in a projectized environment and enjoys working with smallholder farmers, aggregators, processors, transporters, offtakers, and traders by assisting them to improve on their sanitary and food safety and quality requirements and standards according to the market or government regulations.

Main Responsibilities

This position offers the intern an opportunity to learn and perform the following functions:

• Assist NBD (New Business Development) team in identifying and or designing projects that fully promote adoption and compliance of food safety principles and quality standards e.g. HACCP, GlobalGAP, Codex norms, etc. among stakeholders to meet off-takers’ quality standards.

• Work closely with IFDC projects’ beneficiairies e.g. farmers, processors etc. to ensure they are quality-audit ready
• Assist in training project beneficiaries’ employees on best food safety, hygiene and handling procedures necessary to prevent contamination of food products and hazards
• Assist in preparing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the key projects beneficiaries and conduct meetings or workshops to explain and operationalize the SOPs with the target beneficiaries
• Assist target project beneficiaries to understand and ensure compliance with all the relevant standards administered by Food and Drug Authority (FDA), Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), traceability, etc.
• Other duties as deemed necessary

Requirements

• A graduate in Food Safety, Food Quality Management, Food Science, Food Technology, Postharvest Technology, Agronomy, and other related fields from an accredited institution
• Must have appreciable knowledge and skills in upstream food safety and quality standards e.g. HACCP, GlobalGAP, Codex norms, etc.
• Good communication in English (both writing and speaking) and presentation skills using PowerPoint
• Proposal writing skills and a working knowledge of French is a plus