The story behind quality – “Food safety affects everyone”

26 July 2022

Mario de Belda has been a QA Manager at Farmhouse International since January of this year. The brand new colleague feels completely at home in his new role and can’t see himself changing jobs any time soon. “Food safety is important to everyone and that’s why it’s so fun and interesting to work on it every day.”

 

Mario studied agronomic engineering in his native Chile and subsequently worked for various fruit exporters. He says: “During that time I learnt a lot about production, sales and quality. When I got the opportunity to work in Europe, I took it with both hands. In recent years, I have been working at various international companies and learned a great deal there too.”

 

Shaking up the chain

This means that Mario has been working at Farmhouse International since the beginning of this year. Why did he make the switch? “It’s not easy to find a company that genuinely pays attention to quality and the human factor in the entire chain,” he explains. “At Farmhouse, I saw a vision that appealed to me and fits my own. This made it an obvious choice.” As QA Manager, Mario ensures that the products that Farmhouse supplies meet the specifications requested by the customer. “In addition, risk analyses and proactive actions are essential elements of our strategy. And good communication with our customers and our suppliers is an important pillar of that strategy.” He says that the entire chain is currently being ‘shaken up’ considerably and that the link quality is also facing changes. “Hot topics are extreme weather conditions, satisfaction in the supply chain, the use of pesticides and alternatives to fertilisers. But process validation and the development of new technologies also require a lot of attention at the moment.”

 

High impact

Mario is fascinated by his work as a QA Manager. He is particularly interested in the fact that quality has such a great impact on the company and on our lives. “Food safety affects everyone. And I also like the fact that I get to deal with both the human side and the process side.” And with a smile he adds: “Not everyone can say that they have such a versatile job.” He certainly feels he is in the right place at Farmhouse. “I think the promise of ‘connecting smiles’ is a wonderful motivation.”