Food quality technician vs quality associate

The differences between food quality technicians and quality associates can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a quality associate has an average salary of $50,300, which is higher than the $41,484 average annual salary of a food quality technician.

The top three skills for a food quality technician include GMP, SQF and QA. The most important skills for a quality associate are patients, QA, and quality system.

Food quality technician vs quality associate overview

	Food Quality Technician	Quality Associate
Yearly salary	$41,484	$50,300
Hourly rate	$19.94	$24.18
Growth rate	6%	3%
Number of jobs	112,704	60,168
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 63%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Average age	43	38
Years of experience	-	-

Food quality technician vs quality associate salary

Food quality technicians and quality associates have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Food Quality Technician	Quality Associate
Average salary	$41,484	$50,300
Salary range	Between $25,000 And $67,000	Between $31,000 And $80,000
Highest paying City	Fall River, MA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Delaware	Connecticut
Best paying company	Amazon	JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Best paying industry	-	Health Care

Differences between food quality technician and quality associate education

There are a few differences between a food quality technician and a quality associate in terms of educational background:

	Food Quality Technician	Quality Associate
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 63%	Bachelor's Degree, 62%
Most common major	Food Science	Biology
Most common college	Stanford University	Stanford University

Food quality technician vs quality associate demographics

Here are the differences between food quality technicians' and quality associates' demographics:

	Food Quality Technician	Quality Associate
Average age	43	38
Gender ratio	Male, 39.3% Female, 60.7%	Male, 44.8% Female, 55.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.6% Unknown, 4.2% Hispanic or Latino, 14.3% Asian, 6.5% White, 64.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9%	Black or African American, 9.4% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 16.7% Asian, 11.6% White, 55.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%
LGBT Percentage	8%	8%

Differences between food quality technician and quality associate duties and responsibilities

Food quality technician example responsibilities.

Manage CAPA projects/assignments using CATSWeb system.
Refer to the FSQ manager if necessary.
Prepare facility for FDA, SQF and other third party audits.
Support managers by providing detail weekly and monthly QA trend reports.
Collect and analyze data, prepare QA reports and perform internal audits.
Interact with USDA to ensure that all food safety guidelines are being follow.

Quality associate example responsibilities.

Manage document control including initiating and revising procedures, QA approval and implementation of documents.
Participate in all regulatory, corporate and internal audit activities to include FDA, DEA, OSHA and ISO.
Create slideshow for meeting with PowerPoint.
Maintain all quality documents including PPAP, FMEA, etc.
Provide management with update PowerPoint graphs monthly, quarterly and yearly.
Chart review for compliance for local policies, TJC and CMS.

Food quality technician vs quality associate skills

Common food quality technician skills

GMP, 16%
SQF, 11%
QA, 9%
Microbiological, 9%
CCP, 7%
Product Quality, 6%

Common quality associate skills

Patients, 10%
QA, 5%
Quality System, 5%
Quality Specifications, 5%
Product Quality, 4%
Customer Service, 4%

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Food Quality Technician
Food Quality Technician vs Quality Associate

Updated January 8, 2025

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