Jasmin Hurt

Scientist/Senior Scientist in the Food Microbiology Section of the Food Safety Group. Performs classical and advanced microbiology testing on food and environmental samples for the presence of bacterial agents or associated toxins during foodborne outbreaks or in support of food recalls under investigation by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS). Performs emergency response and routine surveillance testing for the isolation, characterization, and subtyping of foodborne pathogens and communicating the finding to agencies such as VDH, VDACS, USDA and the FDA. Specific trainings and experience in:

• Collaborating with Principal Scientist to develop and validate new methods, QA/QC procedures in support of ISO 17025 standards.
• Performed complex troubleshooting and assisted in leading initiatives to solve challenging scientific problems with assays or instrumentation.
• Trained new employees on areas of technical expertise and compliance issues relevant to lab setting.
• Coordinating, leading, organizing and prioritizing the work of other on team.

• Lead quality processes and procedures for both brewing and packaging.
• Validate new analytical testing equipment and prepares for use in QA and the brewery.
• Assist with brewery issues, including: Yeast culturing, small batch brewing, cask production, and production brewing.
• Work with brewery personnel to determine root cause and possible solutions for analytical issues.
• Review and report trends and findings with upper leadership during weekly QA meetings.
• Cover microbiological methods and yeast propagations.
• Promote food safety and sanitation practices amongst teams.
• Lead process improvement projects for bottling line.

• Track, trend, and monitor TPOs, CO2, ABV, and fills on packaging lines.
• Present all trending data at QA weekly meetings.
• Perform various studies and perform statistical analyses to improve quality throughout the brewery.
• Assist in implementing new packaging quality specs and protocols.
• Work with packaging supervisors and manger to determine root cause of any quality related issues on packaging lines.
• Conduct inspection and analysis of package integrity and specifications.
• Validate new packaging materials.
• Run and analyze data on the Gas Chromatograph and HPLC for VDKs and other analytes.
• Assist in training brewery personnel on analytical equipment.
• Create and update all packaging quality SOPs.

• Assist with writing and reviewing lab assistant procedure and protocols.
• Train all laboratory assistants and technicians personnel on all laboratory instruments, protocols, and QA standards.
• Perform PM (daily, weekly, and monthly) on instruments.
• Prepare and distribute specimens.
• Operate analytical instrumentation such as: Roche Modular E, Roche Modular P, Hamilton and Beckman Coulter Automation.
• Use LIM system to track and load specimens throughout testing.

• Inspect untested products for cosmetic defects.
• Load untested product onto test mandrel and operate testing machines.
• Perform QC checks on all products before loading and running.