Food engineer CV example for quality and production roles
State whether you work in quality or production, name the food safety system you worked in, such as HACCP, ISO 22000 or FSSC 22000, and your exact part in it, then prove it with audit, yield or complaint figures.1
Written 13 October 2026. CitedCV. How we write our guides
Quality track or production track: choose one per application
Prospects lists production, quality assurance and product development as the usual roles at food and drink manufacturers, and says technologists can later specialise in quality or process management. The same person often moves between them, but an advert asks for one. Your summary and first bullets should belong to the track the advert names.
| Quality and food safety | Production and process | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical titles | QA engineer, food safety specialist, HACCP team leader | Production engineer, shift manager, process engineer |
| What is read first | The system you maintained and the audits you passed | Output, yield, waste, downtime |
| Numbers that fit | Non-conformities, complaint rate, audit grade, CCP deviations | Tonnes a shift, giveaway, OEE, energy or water per tonne |
| Documents you may own | HACCP plan, PRPs, supplier approvals, traceability tests | Work instructions, cleaning schedules, line trials |
What food employers check first
O*NET's profile for food scientists and technologists (19-1012.00), the closest US match for food engineers, opens its task list with inspecting processing areas for compliance with sanitation, safety, quality and waste rules, then checking raw ingredients and finished products for safety, quality and nutrition, and developing food standards and production specifications.
The UK National Careers Service says a central part of the job is testing samples to make sure they meet safety and quality standards, alongside developing recipes, providing nutrition information for labels and investigating customer complaints. Each of those duties can become a measured line on your CV.
The professional body in the UK
Both the National Careers Service and Prospects point to the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST). Membership can lead to Registered Scientist (RSci) or Chartered Scientist (CSci) status, which belongs in the education and memberships part of the CV.
HACCP, ISO 22000 and FSSC 22000 are not the same thing
Many CVs list all three as if they were skills of equal size. They are a method, a standard and a certification scheme, and a reader in food safety expects you to know which is which.
| Name | What it is | Who publishes it | How to write it |
|---|---|---|---|
| HACCP | A seven-principle method for controlling food hazards | Codex Alimentarius; the US version was adopted by NACMCF in 1997 | HACCP team member or leader, the product, the CCPs you monitored or validated |
| ISO 22000:2018 | A standard for a food safety management system, edition 2, with Amendment 1 of 2024 | ISO, committee TC 34/SC 17 | The certified site and your role: internal auditor, system owner, team member |
| FSSC 22000 | A GFSI-recognised certification scheme built on ISO 22000 plus sector prerequisite programmes and scheme requirements; version 7 | Foundation FSSC | The site, the version and your part in the certification audit |
The seven HACCP principles, as the FDA prints them
- Conduct a hazard analysis.
- Determine the critical control points (CCPs).
- Establish critical limits.
- Establish monitoring procedures.
- Establish corrective actions.
- Establish verification procedures.
- Establish record-keeping and documentation procedures.
Your bullet is stronger when it names the principle you actually worked on. "Validated the critical limit for the pasteuriser CCP" says more than "HACCP knowledge".
Sites are certified, people are trained
An ISO 22000 or FSSC 22000 certificate belongs to a site. What belongs to you is the role you played and any course you passed, such as an internal auditor or lead auditor course, written with the training provider and year.
Example: a food quality engineer CV section
Example. Tom Reilly is invented, as are the plants and every figure. Use the shape and fill it with your own records.
Profile
Food engineer with five years in dairy and chilled desserts. HACCP team leader for two lines, internal auditor for an FSSC 22000 site, and owner of supplier approval for packaging.
Quality and Food Safety Engineer, Greenvale Dairy, 2022 to present
- Led the HACCP review for a new yoghurt filling line: 11 process steps, 2 CCPs, critical limits validated with 30 days of temperature and time records before launch.
- Ran 24 internal audits a year against FSSC 22000; the site closed its last two certification audits with no major non-conformity.
- Cut foreign-body complaints from 9 to 3 per million units sold over a year by moving a metal detector and tightening sieve checks.
- Approved 14 packaging suppliers and ran two traceability tests a year, each completed within four hours.
Production Engineer, Meadow Foods, 2020 to 2022
- Reduced overfill giveaway on a cream line from 2.4% to 1.1% by recalibrating fillers and adding hourly weight checks.
- Wrote cleaning-in-place work instructions for six circuits, used by all three shifts.
Training
ISO 22000 internal auditor course, 2022. HACCP Level 3 course, 2021. IFST member.
Skills table for food engineers
| Skill | Track | Proof on the CV |
|---|---|---|
| HACCP plan design and review | Quality | Steps, CCPs, validation data |
| Internal auditing | Quality | Audits a year, findings closed |
| Microbiology and lab testing | Quality | Methods, sample plans, release decisions |
| Line efficiency and yield | Production | OEE, giveaway, waste per tonne |
| Cleaning and hygiene design | Both | CIP circuits, cleaning time, swab results |
| ERP and traceability | Both | Lot tracing time, system used (SAP or others) |
Sources and legal background, read 13 October 2026
In the UK, GOV.UK says a food business must have a food safety management system and that it must meet the HACCP principles. In Türkiye, Law 5996 obliges food business operators, other than primary producers, to set up and apply a food safety system based on HACCP principles. ISO lists ISO 22000:2018 as last reviewed and confirmed in 2023 and expected to be replaced by a revision now in draft (ISO/DIS 22000), so check the version before you write it.
The National Careers Service profile names no licence for the job; professional recognition in the UK comes through IFST. In Türkiye, food engineers fill legally required posts in many food plants; the Turkish page covers that in detail.
Who this page is not for
Chefs and kitchen staff, whose hygiene training and kitchen roles read differently, have the chef guide. Engineers in non-food chemical plants, where HAZOP rather than HACCP drives the CV, should read the chemical engineer guide. Line balancing and lean projects sit in the industrial engineer guide.
Applying abroad and next steps
For Germany, the engineer guide explains the protected Ingenieur title, and the same rule applies when the word appears inside a compound title. The jobs-abroad guide covers what changes from country to country.
CitedCV can turn your audit, yield and complaint records into a CV in English, Turkish or German, writing only from the facts you enter and asking when a figure is missing.
Questions people ask
How do I write HACCP on my CV?
Write your role (team member or leader), the product or line, and the principle you worked on, such as validating critical limits, not just the word HACCP.
Is ISO 22000 a personal certificate?
No, a site or organisation is certified against ISO 22000; you list your role in it and any course you passed, such as internal auditor.
What is the difference between ISO 22000 and FSSC 22000?
FSSC 22000 is a certification scheme built on ISO 22000 plus sector prerequisite programmes and its own requirements, and it is recognised by GFSI.
Should a food engineer apply for quality or production jobs?
Either, but one per application: lead with audits and complaints for quality, and with output, yield and waste for production.
What numbers can a food quality engineer put on a CV?
Audit results, non-conformities closed, complaint rates per million units, CCP deviations and traceability test times are all measurable and checkable.
Is a food engineer the same as a food technologist?
The work overlaps heavily; UK profiles use food scientist or technologist, so match the title in the advert and keep your degree name as it is.
What should a graduate food engineer put first?
Put the internship or final project with its product and one measured result, then lab methods and any HACCP or hygiene course with its provider and year.
Sources
- O*NET OnLine: Food Scientists and Technologists (19-1012.00)www.onetonline.org/link/summary/19-1012.00
- FDA: HACCP Principles and Application Guidelineswww.fda.gov/food/hazard-analysis-critical-control-point-haccp/haccp-principles-application-guidelines
- ISO 22000:2018 Food safety management systemscommittee.iso.org/standard/65464.html
- FSSC 22000: Schemewww.fssc.com/schemes/fssc-22000/
- GOV.UK: Food safety management systemswww.gov.uk/food-safety-management-systems
- National Careers Service: Food scientistnationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/food-scientist
- Prospects: Food technologistwww.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/food-technologist