How To Become A Food Safety Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a food safety director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Food manufacturing companies require the services of food safety directors to determine the safety of foods produced.

A food safety director is an individual who monitors all compliance methods and policies, carries out inspection duties, and ensures that every worker and equipment used for production meets all the regulations guiding food health and safety.

They determine methods that can be used to maintain the standard and improve safety standards in the company. Another responsibility of a food safety director is to train new workers and work with other quality assurance officers to inspect the equipment used in production.

If you studied food science and technology, biology, or public health, then you are fit to work as a food safety officer. However, you will need to garner experience in food manufacturing companies to be a director. On average, you can make $80,376 per year as a food safety director.

ScoreFood Safety DirectorUS Average

Salary

5.4

Avg. Salary $69,299

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.1

Growth rate 10%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

7.6

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.71%

Asian 9.10%

Black or African American 10.35%

Hispanic or Latino 17.88%

Unknown 5.48%

White 56.48%

Gender

female 41.06%

male 58.94%

Age - 38

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 38

Stress level

9.1

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.3

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

5.0

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a food safety director

Explore food safety director education requirements

Most common food safety director degrees

Bachelor's

58.6 %

Associate

13.7 %

Master's

11.8 %

Start to develop specific food safety director skills

Skills	Percentages
Food Service	10.37%
FDA	7.23%
HACCP	6.52%
Continuous Improvement	6.48%
Culinary	6.04%

Complete relevant food safety director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-2 years on post-employment, on-the-job training. New food safety directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a food safety director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real food safety director resumes.

Research food safety director duties and responsibilities

Manage operations and provide support to a team of 245 union employees at various elementary, middle and high school cafeterias.
Prepare HACCP analysis report and provide reports for the areas not meeting the quality standards.
Supervise culinary selection, catering, event planning, and baking/cooking functions and oversee menu development.
Assist with the development and execution of HACCP plans specific to projects and special events.

Get food safety director experience

Generally, it takes 2-4 years to become a food safety director. The most common roles before becoming a food safety director include general manager, executive chef team lead and manager.

Prepare your food safety director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your food safety director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a food safety director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable food safety director resume templates

Build a professional food safety director resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your food safety director resume.