Career story

Quality controller

Loretta Salvation's role is an important part of the chain which ensures produce is fresh, attractive and ready to eat by the time it reaches the supermarket shelf. As a quality controller, Loretta is responsible for ensuring the fruit and vegetables that pass through her packhouse are properly washed, graded and packed.

During a day's work she is required to make a number of important decisions and conduct tests on the food. "I have to decide whether it will be washed or brushed. If it's got a nice skin finish it will go through the slide and if it doesn't then it will go into being brushed. I have to do a dry matter test and cooking tests - baking, roasting and mashing and boiling," she says.

Checking that the graders are doing their job properly is another important part of her job. "The produce will go through the first grading station where the graders pick out rots and other defects. Then it will go through a barrel washer and a polisher. On the wash line we've got seven or eight graders - they take out as many defects as they can. Then the produce goes through to a sizing machine."

What Loretta enjoys is that every day is different. She could be out in the paddock checking on the crop before it comes into the packhouse, doing quality checks on the wash line or at despatch, adding the results of her tests into a computer database or doing shelf life tests.