Cluster Food Safety Manager

The Cluster Food Safety, Hygiene & Stewarding Manager is responsible for leading, monitoring and continuously improving food safety, HACCP compliance, hygiene, sanitation, food quality control, stewarding operations, cleanliness standards and related operational procedures across all three properties of The Cocoon Collection in the Maldives.

The position serves as the cluster focal point for food safety, hygiene and stewarding standards, ensuring that all properties consistently operate in accordance with company SOPs, HACCP principles, applicable Maldivian regulations and internationally accepted hospitality food-safety practices.

The role will work closely with Executive Chefs, Executive Sous Chefs, Stewarding teams, Food & Beverage teams, Purchasing, Stores, Engineering, Housekeeping and Resort Management to establish consistent standards across the three resorts.

A major responsibility of the position is to identify operational risks before they develop into incidents, ensure corrective actions are implemented promptly, and build a strong culture of food safety, cleanliness, quality and accountability throughout the organization.

WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

The position works closely with Cluster Culinary and Operations leadership, Resort Managers/ General Managers, Executive Chefs, F&B Managers, Stewarding Managers/ Supervisors, Purchasing, Receiving & Stores, Engineering, Housekeeping, Talent & Culture/Learning & Development, Security, Resort Clinic/ Medical Team, suppliers, contractors and relevant regulatory authorities.

1. HACCP Management & Compliance

• Lead and oversee the implementation and continuous maintenance of the HACCP system across all three properties.
• Ensure HACCP principles are properly applied throughout receiving, storage, preparation, cooking, cooling, reheating, holding, transportation and service of food.
• Review HACCP plans, flow charts, critical control points, critical limits and monitoring procedures.
• Ensure all required HACCP documentation and monitoring records are accurately completed and properly maintained.
• Monitor food temperatures at receiving, storage, preparation, cooking, cooling, reheating, buffet and service stages.
• Ensure appropriate corrective action is taken whenever a critical limit or required standard is not achieved.
• Conduct regular verification of HACCP records and supporting documentation.
• Review HACCP systems whenever there are significant changes in menus, equipment, processes, suppliers or operational practices.
• Ensure consistent HACCP standards and documentation formats are used throughout all three resorts.

2. Food Safety Management

• Take overall cluster responsibility for monitoring food safety standards across the three properties.
• Conduct regular inspections of kitchens, restaurants, bars, stores, receiving areas, staff dining facilities and other food-handling areas.
• Ensure safe food handling practices are consistently followed.
• Monitor prevention of cross-contamination between raw and ready-to-eat food.
• Ensure correct segregation and handling of raw meat, seafood, poultry, vegetables and ready-to-eat products.
• Monitor allergen-management procedures and ensure teams understand allergen risks and controls.
• Ensure food is properly covered, labelled, dated and stored.
• Monitor FIFO/FEFO practices and expiry-date controls.
• Ensure potentially unsafe or expired products are immediately removed from operation.
• Investigate any suspected food contamination, food poisoning or foodborne illness incident.
• Maintain records of food-safety incidents and corrective/preventive actions.
• Immediately escalate any serious food-safety risk to senior management.

3. Hygiene & Sanitation

• Establish and monitor hygiene and sanitation standards throughout all Culinary and F&B back-of-house areas.
• Ensure kitchens, preparation areas, stores, cold rooms, freezers, dishwashing areas and stewarding areas remain clean and hygienic.
• Establish detailed cleaning and sanitation schedules.
• Monitor daily, weekly, monthly and deep-cleaning programs.
• Ensure cleaning schedules clearly identify the area/equipment, cleaning method, chemical, frequency and responsible person.
• Conduct hygiene inspections and cleanliness spot checks.
• Ensure proper handwashing facilities, procedures and personal hygiene practices are maintained.
• Monitor staff grooming, uniforms and personal hygiene compliance.
• Ensure correct handling and disposal of food and general waste.
• Coordinate pest-control requirements and follow up on findings relating to food-production and storage areas.

4. Stewarding Operations

• Provide cluster-level operational oversight and guidance to the Stewarding teams across all three resorts.
• Work with Executive Chefs and property Stewarding leadership to establish consistent stewarding standards.
• Monitor cleanliness and sanitation of all kitchens, back-of-house areas, dishwashing sections, pot-wash areas and stewarding facilities.
• Ensure dishwashing machines are operating at required wash and rinse temperatures.
• Monitor correct use and concentration of cleaning and sanitizing chemicals.
• Ensure stewarding teams follow appropriate chemical-handling and safety procedures.
• Establish standard cleaning procedures for kitchen equipment, floors, walls, drains, exhaust systems and food-contact surfaces.
• Monitor deep-cleaning schedules and completion.
• Review stewarding staffing, work allocation and productivity where required.
• Support Stewarding Supervisors/Managers with operational improvement plans.
• Monitor breakage, equipment handling and proper storage of operating equipment.
• Ensure waste areas are properly maintained, cleaned and sanitized.
• Identify recurring cleanliness or stewarding deficiencies and ensure permanent corrective measures are implemented.

5. Food Quality Assurance

• Support Culinary leadership in maintaining consistent food-quality standards across all three properties.
• Monitor receiving standards to ensure food products meet agreed specifications and quality requirements.
• Conduct random quality inspections of incoming food products.
• Ensure products that do not meet quality, temperature, packaging or food-safety requirements are rejected.
• Monitor product freshness, shelf life, labelling and storage conditions.
• Work with Purchasing Stores and Executive Chefs regarding supplier-related quality concerns.
• Identify recurring product-quality issues and recommend corrective action.
• Support standardization of food-quality controls throughout the Collection.

6. Receiving, Storage & Supplier Control

• Regularly inspect food receiving areas and procedures.
• Ensure food temperatures and product conditions are checked during receiving.
• Ensure delivery vehicles and food transportation conditions meet hygiene requirements.
• Monitor cold rooms, freezers, dry stores and beverage storage facilities.
• Ensure correct storage temperatures are maintained and documented.
• Ensure raw and cooked products are properly segregated.
• Ensure chemicals are never stored together with food products.
• Review supplier food-safety documentation where required.
• Participate in supplier food-safety and quality assessments.
• Conduct periodic audits of high-risk suppliers where appropriate.
• Work with Purchasing and Culinary teams to address supplier non-conformities.

7. Cluster Audits & Inspections

• Develop a Cluster Food Safety, Hygiene & Stewarding Audit Program covering all three properties.
• Conduct scheduled comprehensive audits of each property.
• Conduct periodic unannounced spot checks.
• Audit kitchens, restaurants, bars, stores, receiving, stewarding, staff dining and other relevant operational areas.
• Maintain a standardized cluster audit scoring system.
• Categorize findings according to risk and severity.
• Immediately escalate critical food-safety findings.
• Issue formal audit reports following inspections.
• Provide clear photographs, observations, recommendations, responsible persons and completion deadlines where appropriate.
• Compare property performance and identify recurring or cluster-wide issues.

8. Corrective Action & Follow-Up

• Prepare Corrective Action Plans following audits and inspections.
• Assign findings to the appropriate departmental leaders.
• Establish realistic but firm deadlines for corrective actions.
• Follow up until every critical and major finding is satisfactorily closed.
• Maintain a centralized Corrective Action Tracker covering all three properties.
• Verify corrective actions physically rather than relying solely on reported completion.
• Escalate overdue or repeatedly unresolved issues to the relevant Resort Manager, Cluster Director of Culinary and Cluster Director of Operations.
• Conduct root-cause analysis for recurring non-conformities.
• Recommend preventive measures to avoid recurrence.

9. SOP & Procedure Compliance

• Develop, review and standardize SOPs related to:
• Food receiving
• Food storage
• Food preparation
• Cooking and temperature control
• Cooling and reheating
• Buffet food handling
• Food transportation
• Personal hygiene
• Handwashing
• Cleaning and sanitation
• Stewarding operations
• Chemical handling
• Waste management
• Pest control
• Allergen management
• Food-safety incidents
• Equipment cleaning
• Glass and breakage control
• Ice handling
• Water safety where applicable
• Ensure procedures are practical, communicated and consistently implemented.
• Conduct operational inspections to verify that written SOPs are actually being followed.
• Recommend changes to procedures based on operational risks, audit findings and industry best practices.

10. Training & Team Development

• Develop an annual Food Safety, HACCP, Hygiene and Stewarding training plan.
• Conduct regular training across all three properties.
• Ensure new Culinary, F&B and Stewarding team members receive food-safety induction.
• Conduct refresher training based on audit findings and operational requirements.

Provide practical training on:

• HACCP
• Personal hygiene
• Food contamination
• Cross-contamination prevention
• Temperature control
• Food storage
• Cleaning and sanitation
• Chemical handling
• Allergen awareness
• Pest prevention
• Waste management
• Stewarding procedures
• Maintain accurate training attendance and competency records.
• Develop departmental food-safety champions where appropriate.
• Coach Stewarding Supervisors and operational leaders to strengthen ownership of hygiene standards.

11. Documentation & Record Management

Maintain centralized records covering all three properties, including:

• HACCP documentation
• Temperature records
• Cleaning schedules
• Food receiving records
• Supplier documentation
• Pest-control records
• Chemical records
• Training records
• Audit reports
• Corrective Action Plans
• Incident reports
• Food sample records where applicable
• Equipment calibration records
• Stewarding inspection records
• Hygiene inspection reports

Ensure documents are current, traceable, properly filed and readily available for internal or external inspection.

12. Equipment & Facility Hygiene

• Inspect kitchen and stewarding equipment from a food-safety and hygiene perspective.
• Identify damaged equipment, surfaces, seals, flooring, drainage or facilities that may create hygiene risks.
• Coordinate with Engineering for corrective maintenance.
• Monitor preventative maintenance requirements for food-safety-critical equipment.
• Ensure thermometers and other measuring equipment are calibrated as required.
• Monitor ventilation, drainage and waste-management areas for hygiene concerns.

13. Regulatory Compliance

• Ensure operations comply with applicable Maldives Health Protection Agency (HPA) requirements and other relevant regulations.
• Maintain awareness of changes to food-safety requirements and communicate them to management.
• Support properties during government inspections and external food-safety audits.
• Coordinate responses and corrective actions following regulatory inspections.
• Maintain readiness for inspections at all times rather than preparing only when an inspection is announced.

14. Reporting & Management Communication

• Provide regular reports to management covering:
• HACCP compliance
• Hygiene audit scores
• Stewarding performance
• Food-safety risks
• Critical findings
• Corrective-action status
• Training completion
• Supplier concerns
• Food-quality issues
• Pest-control concerns
• Recurring non-conformities
• Food-safety incidents
• Improvement initiatives
• Prepare a monthly Cluster Food Safety, Hygiene & Stewarding Report comparing the performance of all three properties.
• Immediately report any critical risk that may affect guest or employee safety, regulatory compliance or the reputation of The Cocoon Collection.

AUTHORITY & ACCOUNTABILITY

The Cluster Food Safety, Hygiene & Stewarding Manager is authorized to:

• Immediately highlight and stop unsafe food-handling practices.
• Quarantine or recommend disposal of food considered unsafe.
• Require immediate corrective action for critical hygiene violations.
• Request re-cleaning of areas that do not meet required standards.
• Escalate unresolved food-safety and hygiene issues directly to senior management.
• Recommend additional training or corrective measures where repeated non-compliance occurs.
• Recommend operational changes necessary to protect guest and employee safety.

• HACCP Compliance: Maintain a minimum 98% HACCP compliance target across the three properties.
• Critical Food Safety Incidents: Zero preventable critical food-safety incidents or outbreaks.
• Audit Completion: 100% completion of scheduled property audits and cluster inspections.
• Corrective Action Closure: Critical findings addressed immediately and all other agreed actions closed within established deadlines.
• Hygiene & Cleanliness: Maintain agreed cluster hygiene and sanitation audit standards across Culinary, F&B and Stewarding areas.
• Stewarding Standards: Maintain consistent stewarding cleanliness, chemical-control and sanitation standards across all properties.
• Training Compliance: Ensure relevant team members complete mandatory food-safety induction and required refresher training.
• Documentation Compliance: Maintain complete and current food-safety, HACCP, hygiene and sanitation documentation.
• SOP Compliance: Achieve consistent implementation of approved food-safety, hygiene and stewarding SOPs.
• Management Reporting: Submit accurate monthly cluster reports within the agreed reporting timeline.

KEY COMPETENCIES

Food-safety expertise; strong attention to detail; high hygiene and professional standards; analytical and auditing capability; operational discipline; leadership and influencing skills; professional challenge of non-compliance; strong follow-up and accountability; root-cause analysis; training and coaching capability; effective communication; ability to work independently across multiple properties; high integrity and professional judgment.