Whether it’s the integrity of a cold chain, the hygiene of a cutting surface, or the fate of unsold inventory, these elements decide more than just operational success—they determine public health, brand credibility, and environmental responsibility. In retail, there’s no room for error and no hiding from consequences. One loose seal, one overlooked expiry, one wasted ton—it all adds up, not just in numbers, but in impact. The organisations that rise above the rest are those that embed these values not as obligations, but as instincts.
This is exactly where Smitha Vijay stands tall. As Head of QHSE – GCC at Choithrams, she has spent the last seventeen years transforming what were once procedures into culture.
Legacy of Systems That Endure
Smitha’s journey with Choithrams spans nearly two decades and reflects a remarkable evolution in her role across multiple GCC countries. Joining the organisation in November 2007 as a Quality Controller, Smitha was entrusted with the foundational task of building the Quality Control department from the ground up. This included developing policies and procedures to define clear strategies that would uphold the organisation’s long-standing commitment—since its inception in 1974—to customer service and quality.
Smitha’s early days were marked by intense groundwork. Within just a few months, she established core food safety protocols spanning retail, supply chain, and production departments. Her approach began with a thorough gap analysis across operations, followed by the development of robust food safety management systems. Less than two years into her tenure, Smitha led the first Choithrams retail store to achieve Food Safety Management System (FSMS) certification—an unprecedented feat in the region at the time. This achievement, involving complex retail operations and multi-level coordination, marked the first defining moment in her journey.
Building on this success, Smitha rolled out HACCP – Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point implementation across more than 40 retail stores and introduced graded internal audits—a significant leap forward and the second defining moment of her career. Initially managing the department solo, she gradually expanded the team, reinforcing the operational depth of her unit. This evolution also prompted a rebranding of the department to the Food Safety and Hygiene Department, underlining the increasing importance of food safety within the organisation.
Smitha was soon promoted to Food Safety and Hygiene Manager, and her third defining milestone came when she successfully led HACCP certification efforts for Choithrams’ supply chain and production divisions. Her scope widened further in 2013 when she became an integral part of the Core Committee for Sustainability, contributing to the organisation’s broader environmental goals.
One of the most memorable achievements in Smitha’s career was guiding the entire retail chain to food safety certification—a moment she describes as truly endearing. By 2015, the department evolved once more into QHSE Operations, encompassing quality, health, safety, and environment functions. This transition led to Smitha’s elevation to QHSE Operations Manager – GCC, expanding her responsibilities to include three additional countries in the region.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, under Smitha’s leadership, the QHSE department became a pillar of resilience, implementing robust systems to protect employees, customers, and stakeholders alike. The crisis highlighted both the adaptive capacity of the organisation and the strength of its QHSE framework.
In 2022, Smitha was promoted to Head of QHSE – GCC. That same year, she spearheaded the organisation’s participation in the Dubai Quality Award audit, further cementing her role in driving operational excellence. Most recently, as part of Choithrams’ 50th golden anniversary celebrations, Smitha led the company to achieve Integrated Management System certification, successfully aligning three ISO standards—Quality (ISO 9001), Occupational Health and Safety (ISO 45001), and Environment (ISO 14001).
Throughout her journey, Smitha has played a transformative role in shaping QHSE excellence at Choithrams across the GCC, building systems that are not only rigorous and compliant but also future-ready.
Navigating Compliance Across Borders
Leading QHSE across four countries—UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman—requires precision, adaptability, and strategic foresight. Smitha approached this challenge by first developing a corporate QHSE standard that combined the best of international and national regulations. This comprehensive framework allowed the organisation to maintain consistency while aligning with each country’s specific regulatory requirements.
Her proactive engagement with regulatory bodies across all jurisdictions, especially in the UAE, has fostered trust and agility. These partnerships have enabled Choithrams to remain ahead of compliance requirements and swiftly adapt to regulatory changes. As one of the top three importers in Dubai, Choithrams—under Smitha’s QHSE leadership—has implemented a holistic regulatory framework covering diverse categories, including food, non-food, pet food, and general merchandise, ensuring seamless import and export operations.
Embedding Trust Through Quality and Safety
For Smitha, food safety and quality are non-negotiable pillars of Choithrams’ identity. As both a retailer and distributor, the brand’s commitment to customer safety is deeply rooted across operations. Smitha has led the development of a meticulous and robust management system, ensuring that this commitment translates into everyday practices.
Top-down support from leadership has been the key. Smitha ensures that QHSE awareness is embedded across teams, regularly collecting employee feedback on system practicality through audits and training. By aligning QHSE objectives with performance KPIs in both retail and supply chain departments, she fosters a strong safety culture.
Smitha also champions transparency and responsiveness, especially in critical scenarios like product withdrawals and recalls. For her, customer safety is paramount in every decision. Beyond compliance, she has initiated customer-facing events to raise awareness on food safety, health, and sustainability, strengthening Choithrams’ reputation as a trusted brand.
Sustainability with Purpose
Smitha has been at the forefront of Choithrams’ sustainability journey since 2013, helping conceptualise the ‘Planet 7 Sustainability Plan’—a comprehensive framework based on the seven principles of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Under her leadership and core committee, the company has implemented both quantitative and qualitative KPIs to track sustainability goals and progress.
Aligned with 15 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and a 2030 sustainability agenda, Smitha and core committee has driven significant initiatives to reduce energy consumption, water usage, and landfill waste. From installing solar panels, motion sensors and upgrading HVAC systems to using sky dome lights and water aerators, she has overseen tangible improvements in resource efficiency.
Waste management has also been a priority. Smitha and the committee introduced segregation, quantification, and analytics-based waste minimisation, ensuring effective recycling and disposal. She advocates the 6R strategy—refuse, rethink, reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle, —especially in food waste management, implementing stricter inventory control, expiry tagging, and vendor compliance to minimise loss.
Smitha also strengthened Choithrams’ partnership with the UAE Food Bank, enabling the donation of 100+ tons of safe food to those in need since 2017. This earned Choithrams several recognitions and solidified its role as a strategic partner in the fight against hunger.
In collaboration with the Dubai Municipality Environmental Sustainable Department, Smitha has led large-scale initiatives such as Sustainability Week celebrations, featuring sessions by key organisations like the UN World Food Program, Tadweer, and UAE Red Crescent. She championed blood donation drives, beach clean-ups, and clothing/toy donation campaigns, strengthening community engagement.
Under her guidance, Choithrams has recycled over 700+ tons of unfit food waste through Tadweer since 2019 and conducted employee sustainability surveys to measure internal awareness and involvement.
Audits That Drive Progress
Smitha has long believed that internal audits should do more than just meet regulatory checkboxes—they should catalyse continuous improvement across the organisation. To achieve this, she developed a structured, risk-based internal audit program that is both unannounced and unbiased.
Since 2009, Smitha has implemented graded internal audits covering all operations, with monthly audits forming the backbone of the system. Each month, she ensures a comprehensive audit summary is published across all retail stores, distribution centers, and production hubs in the GCC. This approach, launched in 2010, has encouraged a healthy sense of collective competition and has been a defining moment in Choithrams’ QHSE evolution.
What sets Smitha’s audit design apart is its stringency—she has purposefully created internal audits that are tougher than external audits or regulatory inspections. These audits are regularly reviewed and fine-tuned to enhance operational effectiveness. Thanks to the robustness of the audit program, thereby regulatory inspections are minimal, and the organisation consistently earns high ratings from authorities across the GCC.
Training That Translates Vision Into Action
For Smitha, training is the glue that binds the QHSE strategy to every level of the organisation, from senior leadership to frontline store and distribution teams. Since launching the food safety training program in August 2008, she has meticulously built a comprehensive framework that continues to evolve and expand.
Today, Choithrams runs a multi-tiered training structure with five broad categories and over 15 specialised training modules, all designed to embed QHSE principles into daily operations. The training centers are certified by all relevant authorities, and Choithrams partners with the Highfield Awarding Body for Compliance (HABC)—a globally recognised certification body with a regional presence in the UAE.
From day one, every new employee is inducted into the corporate QHSE standards as part of the onboarding process. Smitha considers internal training a key driver of performance and a critical enabler of compliance and consistency across the region. Additionally, Dubai Municipality’s Person In-Charge (PIC) program has further supported Choithrams’ journey towards strengthening food safety and operational excellence.
Blueprint for Transforming Customer Feedback into Impact
Smitha’s commitment to quality control and complaint handling is rooted in the belief that every piece of feedback is an opportunity to improve. One such instance involved a customer complaint about a pet jar with a faulty inner seal. Upon investigating the root cause, Smitha’s team discovered a malfunction in the sealing machine at the manufacturer’s end.
Acting decisively, the manufacturer was informed to rectify and led to significant upgrades—replacing the entire jar production line, including the filler, capping, sealing machines and improving quality checks at the manufacturer’s end. This led not just to a resolution of the issue, but also to a long-term process improvement that enhanced product integrity and customer satisfaction.
Smitha continues to advocate for proactive feedback loops, ensuring customer concerns are not just heard—but transformed into meaningful operational changes.
Holding Partners to High Standards
With supply chains stretching across multiple countries, Smitha has put in place a standardized system for managing third-party labs and certification bodies. This system is governed by clearly defined Service Level Agreements (SLAs) at the corporate level, enabling regional teams to seamlessly align with Choithrams’ rigorous QHSE expectations.
For over 15 years, Smitha has maintained a strong partnership with BSI – British Standards Institution, the UK’s national standards body, for all management system certifications. This enduring collaboration has significantly strengthened the organisation’s quality, health, safety, and environmental benchmarks.
As part of the broader vendor management strategy, Smitha ensures that all vendor documents are thoroughly vetted during the pre-qualification phase. Vendors are briefed on expectations and are provided with the Integrated Management System (IMS) policy, reinforcing Choithrams’ commitment to high QHSE standards from the outset of every partnership.
Leveraging Data for Smarter QHSE Decisions
Smitha is a strong advocate of data-driven decision-making within the QHSE framework. Under her leadership, the team actively uses technology and analytics tools such as SAP Business Objects and Power BI for trend analysis, performance monitoring, and continuous improvement.
Choithrams has also integrated an audit-specific app for conducting QHSE audits and capturing real-time analytics on quality and food safety. Smitha’s collaboration with the HR department resulted in the creation of online QHSE induction modules—a vital solution for onboarding employees based in remote locations or far from the corporate office.
Further embracing digital transformation, QHSE under Smitha’s direction has implemented QR code-based systems to collect internal and external customer feedback and evaluate vendor performance. These insights fuel targeted improvements and transparency. Service requests across all entities are also centrally managed through the ManageEngine app, allowing for efficient tracking and timely resolution.
Creating a Culture of Safety and Accountability
In high-velocity environments like supermarkets and distribution centers, Smitha emphasises that leadership commitment is the foundation of a strong safety culture. Under her stewardship, safety and accountability have been deeply woven into the operational DNA of Choithrams through the QHSE function.
Employees are encouraged to actively engage in baseline risk assessments, enabling a comprehensive Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (HIRA) process. Safety ambassadors serve as frontline consultants, fostering open communication and reinforcing a culture where accountability is shared across all levels.
Smitha has also introduced a robust incident reporting and management system, which helps identify root causes and initiate necessary corrective and preventive actions. Regular Toolbox Talks (TBTs) are held to maintain alignment and reinforce key safety messages.
To assess progress and identify areas of improvement, QHSE culture surveys are conducted periodically. In addition, the team shares safety tips, visuals, and posters—both digitally and physically—to keep employees refreshed and engaged on QHSE best practices.
Learning Beyond Retail
As Choithrams is part of a larger group with active involvement in healthcare and education, Smitha strongly advocates for the value of cross-sector learning in strengthening QHSE frameworks. She believes that sharing best practices across industries helps to reinforce standards and spark innovation.
Smitha has facilitated team from health care sector and interns from education wing to oversee Choithrams UAE operations, offering them real-world exposure to QHSE practices in FMCG industry which would also provide them insights of impactful business; it has been insightful experience for Choithrams teams as well. Looking ahead, she sees potential in developing QHSE internship programs, creating a platform for knowledge exchange and injecting fresh, versatile ideas from young minds.
Additionally, regular sessions led by experts from healthcare and education institutions have enriched Choithrams’ QHSE strategy. These interactions often bring inspiring stories and success models that accelerate learning and offer new perspectives for implementation within the retail environment.
Raising the Bar on Sustainability and Safety
As customer expectations evolve and environmental and health standards grow more complex, Smitha is focused on future-proofing Choithrams’ QHSE framework. Her vision for the next phase of evolution is centred on engaging, educating, and empowering external stakeholders—including customers, partners, and community members—about the organisation’s commitment to sustainability, health, and safety.
Smitha’s strategy includes scrupulous enhancement of existing systems, with a focus on environment, sustainability, and health standards. Her goal is to advance EHS (Environment, Health, and Safety) efficiency, reduce operational risk, and improve key metrics that will ultimately lead to a reduced environmental footprint for the organisation.
Driven by continuous improvement, Smitha aims to ensure that Choithrams not only meets expectations but sets new benchmarks in QHSE excellence across the GCC region.
Feathers in Her Cap
Over the years, Smitha has emerged as a prominent voice and thought leader in the areas of food safety, sustainability, and waste reduction across the GCC region. Her consistent contributions—both in practice and advocacy—have earned her recognition from leading regulatory bodies and sustainability organizations. Through speaking engagements, awards, publications, and public forums, Smitha continues to drive positive change in the retail sector.
Here are some highlights of her distinguished accomplishments:
- Speaker at “Let’s Speak Food Safety” – In April 2024, Smitha delivered a talk on “Sourcing Wisely – Choosing the Right Suppliers”during a session organized by Dubai Municipality, focusing on food safety strategies for hypermarkets and supermarkets.
- Featured Speaker at the 17th Dubai International Food Safety Conference – In December 2023, Smitha spoke in the “Greener Food Safety Era”session on the topic “Revolutionizing Food Loss and Wastage Reduction in the Retail Sector”, addressing forward-thinking practices in food sustainability.
- Awarded “Food Safety Sustainability Ambassador” – Honoured at the same 17th Dubai International Food Safety Conference in 2023 by Dubai Municipality Food Safety Department, this award recognized Smitha’s impactful contributions to sustainable food safety practices.
- Speaker at World Food Day 2023 – On October 16, 2023, during the launch of the Food Sustainability Codeby Dubai Municipality, Smitha presented on Choithrams’ Sustainability Initiatives, with a focus on reducing food loss and waste.
- Panelist for the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste – Participated in a high-level panel discussion hosted by Dubai Municipality Food Safety Department in collaboration with FAO on September 28, 2023, at Park Hyatt, Dubai.
- Received an appreciation from Ajman Port and Customs in the year 2022 for being agile in collaboration and compliance with all rules and regulations.
- Webinar Speaker for Emirates Nature WWF – In April 2021, Smitha was invited to speak at a webinar titled “Let’s Speak Up to Reduce Food Waste”, organized by Emirates Nature–WWF, contributing retail insights into waste minimization.
- Recipient of the “Constant Food Safety Support Partner” Award – Recognized in 2021, 2019 and 2018 by Dubai Municipality Food Safety Department at the respective Dubai International Food Safety Conferences for ongoing support and collaboration.
- Received Appreciation for Supporting 1 Million Meal Program by Dubai Municipality in 2020.
- Awarded for “Outstanding effort and support in raising food safety awareness” from Dubai Municipality Food Safety Department in 2020.
- Recipient of appreciation from Dubai Chamber’s SustainabilityNetwork Achievements ceremony in 2019.
- Published Author in Waste & Recycling Middle East & Africa Magazine – Smitha’s article “How UAE Supermarkets Are Tackling Plastic Pollution”was featured in Volume 9, Issue 6 (Sept–Oct 2019), highlighting Choithrams’ efforts in mitigating environmental impact.
🔗 Read the article online - Recipient of the “Best Hypermarket Awareness for Food Safety” Award – Honoured consecutively in 2016 and 2017 by the Dubai Municipality Food Control Department, acknowledging her excellence in promoting food safety awareness in the hypermarket segment.
- Awarded “International Training Centre Excellence Plaque” from Highfield Awarding Body of Compliance – HABC by Chairman in 2016.
- Proud recipient of “A Grades” for three retail stores during the launch of Grading system for food safety inspections in 2015 by the Dubai Municipality Food Safety Department, recognising our excellence in promoting food safety management systems in our Retail chain.
- Awarded “Best Supermarket in Food Safety” Award – 2012 by the Dubai Municipality Food Safety Department, recognising our excellence in promoting food safety management systems in our Retail chain.
