QA Technician

NUTTY BAVARIAN

Deltona, FL

Estimated pay: Est. $29–$37/hr (market estimate, not employer-stated)

Shift: Full time

**Company Overview**

Headquartered in Deltona, Florida, The Nutty Bavarian is a leading turn-key licensor of fresh roasted, cinnamon glazed nuts and Kettle Fresh Fudge, with products sold at approximately 1,000 locations across shopping malls, theme parks, airports, stadiums, zoos, convention centers, and specialty retailers throughout the United States and Canada. Founded in 1989 using a Bavarian nut-glazing recipe, the Company grew rapidly after new ownership took over in 1994 and developed a proprietary, fully automated nut-roasting system that produces a consistently higher-quality product at a fraction of the cost of imported equipment.

As a full-service, one-stop-shop for its partners, The Nutty Bavarian provides turnkey equipment, pre-portioned ingredients, packaging, and marketing/merchandising support; in 2011, the Company expanded this offering with the introduction of Kettle Fresh Fudge, adding a high-volume automated fudge program and new point-of-purchase materials that further diversified revenue opportunities, and in June 2026, The Nutty Bavarian became a subsidiary of Golden Waffles, joining its portfolio of turnkey specialty food and beverage programs serving the hospitality and foodservice industry—a combination that pairs The Nutty Bavarian's established network and proprietary equipment platform with Golden Waffles' national distribution footprint, manufacturing capabilities, and operational scale.

**Job Summary**

The QA Technician plays a hands-on, compliance-focused role at The Nutty Bavarian's Deltona, FL manufacturing facility, verifying that glazed nut and Kettle Fresh Fudge production meets the Company's food safety, quality, and regulatory requirements. Reporting to the Director, FSQA, this role performs the daily inspections, monitoring, and record verification that support the plant's HACCP plan, GMP program, allergen controls, and third-party certification readiness.

This position spends its time on the production floor and in the quality office, conducting GMP and pre-operational inspections, verifying sanitation and allergen changeovers, monitoring critical control points and prerequisite programs, and reviewing production and quality records for accuracy and completeness. Because documentation is the evidence of compliance, this role demands strong attention to detail, consistent follow-through, and the confidence to stop and escalate when something is out of specification.

**Essential Duties and Responsibilities**

**GMP & Food Safety Compliance Monitoring**

• Conduct daily GMP, pre-operational, and in-process inspections of production lines, the kettle room, mill room, packaging areas, and warehouse, documenting findings and ensuring corrections are made.
• Monitor critical control points (CCPs), prerequisite programs, and food safety checks according to the HACCP plan and company SOPs, including cooking temperatures, foreign material controls, and calibration verification of scales and thermometers.
• Verify allergen controls, including line clearance and changeover checks between fudge and nut product runs and between tree nut and other allergen-containing products, to prevent cross-contact.
• Verify sanitation effectiveness through visual inspections and verification testing (e.g., ATP or allergen swabs, environmental monitoring) per the Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOPs).
• Observe employee hygiene, glove/PPE, and good manufacturing practices on the floor, coaching employees in the moment and escalating repeated or serious concerns to the Director, FSQA.

**Documentation & Record Review**

• Review production, batch, sanitation, receiving, and shipping records daily for accuracy, completeness, and compliance with specifications and good documentation practices.
• Verify lot coding, date coding, and label accuracy (including allergen declarations) at packaging to support traceability and label compliance.
• Maintain organized, audit-ready quality records, logs, and files in accordance with record retention requirements.
• Verify incoming raw materials, ingredients, and packaging against specifications, including certificates of analysis and supplier documentation, and flag discrepancies.

**Audit Readiness & Corrective Actions**

• Support internal audits, third-party certification audits (e.g., SQF, BRC, GFSI-benchmarked schemes), customer audits, and regulatory inspections by preparing documentation, escorting auditors, and retrieving records.
• Document non-conformances, deviations, and customer complaints, and support root-cause investigations and corrective action/preventive action (CAPA) follow-up to timely closure.
• Initiate and manage product holds and releases per procedure, and support mock recalls and traceability exercises.
• Track audit findings and open corrective actions, reporting status to the Director, FSQA.

**Product Quality Verification**

• Perform routine product quality checks, including visual and sensory evaluation, net we