LEONEL TAPIA ROJAS
King City,CA
Summary
Food safety coordinator with hands-on experience supporting audits, conducting field inspections, managing corrective actions, and resolving customer complaints. Coordinates USDA, FDA, and state audit requests. Maintains compliance records and delivers harvest food safety training for about 180 employees in English and Spanish.
Overview
2
2
Languages
1
1
Certification
12
12
years of professional experience
Work History
Food Safety Coordinator
Rio Farms LLC / Gill Ranch LLC
King City, CA
01.2018 - Current
- Lead annual start-of-harvest food safety training for more than 12 crews, reaching approximately 180 employees on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Good Harvesting Practices (GHP), food safety, and Cyclospora prevention.
- Serve as a liaison between field operations and quality assurance, communicating food safety requirements and supporting corrective-action planning.
- Lead and support audits involving Primus auditing operations, USDA, and FDA; work directly with state officials during company audits and help coordinate records and responses to audit requests.
- Conduct or coordinate pathogen water testing under food safety procedures and maintain supporting records.
- Maintain audit records, food safety documentation, and traceability information for compliance reviews and operational follow-up.
- Resolved customer complaints regarding food safety by investigating reported issues and implementing corrective actions., investigated reported issues, and implemented corrective actions, reporting findings to senior management to enhance food safety practices.
- Conducted field inspections, pre-harvest assessments, and sanitation checks; documented findings and supported follow-up actions to uphold product integrity and traceability.
- Pulled pesticide-related reports to ensure shippers received accurate safety documentation for compliance. and provided them to shippers to ensure compliance with safety documentation requirements.
Forklift Driver
King City Nursery
King City, CA
01.2015 - 01.2018
- Loaded transplant-ready plants into transport bins and supplied soil to sowing machines, facilitating timely production schedules.
- Coordinated material movement according to work instructions, maintaining orderly nursery operations.
- Organized and moved seed pallets in the germination room and transferred seedlings to designated greenhouses according to work orders.
- Checked seed counts during germination to ensure accurate nursery inventory management.
Education
Some College (No Degree) -
Hartnell College
Salinas, CA06-2015
Skills
- Audit coordination
- Field inspections
- Customer complaint resolution
- Corrective actions
- Records management
- Employee Training
- Technical Communication
- English/Spanish Bilingual Communication
- Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook
- Attention to detail
- Problem solving
- Chemical handling
- Incident investigation
Certification
- Certified in pathogen water testing; food safety coursework includes biology classes.
- Food safety and agricultural training: HACCP, PSA Grower Training, FSMA, GFSI, and LGMA (as listed in original resume).
- Experience trialing autonomous mechanical weeding equipment, including Carbon Robotics, Stout, and Weed Spider; scouts weedy fields to identify areas for mechanical weeding.
- Familiar with crop cycles and field production practices in the Western United States.
- Builds working relationships with growers and production teams; communicates procedures and operational needs across teams.
Languages
Spanish
Full Professional
English
Full Professional
Timeline
Food Safety Coordinator
Rio Farms LLC / Gill Ranch LLC
01.2018 - Current
Forklift Driver
King City Nursery
01.2015 - 01.2018
Some College (No Degree) -
Hartnell College