FDA Releases Final FSMA Rules for Food Transport

The FDA has been releasing final rules to govern various links in the food safety chain since 2015. Their latest announcement, the sixth set of rules, covers food transportation safety. While food transporters have been aware of these changes and taken proactive steps to move toward compliance, many may not be ready for some or all of the changes, which includes documenting temperature controls.

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) has made headlines since it was signed into law in January 2011. The legislation gives the FDA new authority to regulate food producers, processors, distributors and retailers. FSMA provides a number of new powers to the FDA, including mandatory recall authority, which the agency sought for many years. Final rules for Preventive Controls and Human Food, Foreign Supplier Verification Programs, Produce Safety, and Accredited Third-Party Certification have now been joined by Sanitary Transportation of Human Food.

HDT Trucking Info notes the FDA’s final rule for transporters differs in numerous ways from the agency’s original proposal.

The FDA outlines these key requirements of the new rule:
The design and maintenance of vehicles and transportation equipment to ensure that it does not cause the food that it transports to become unsafe. For example, they must be suitable and adequately cleanable for their intended use and capable of maintaining temperatures necessary for the safe transport of food.

The measures taken during transportation to ensure food safety, such as adequate temperature controls, preventing contamination of ready to eat food from touching raw food, protection of food from contamination by non-food items in the same load or previous load, and protection of food from cross-contact, i.e., the unintentional incorporation of a food allergen.

Training of carrier personnel in sanitary transportation practices and documentation of the training. This training is required when the carrier and shipper agree that the carrier is responsible for sanitary conditions during transport.

Maintenance of records of written procedures, agreements and training (required of carriers). The required retention time for these records depends upon the type of record and when the covered activity occurred, but does not exceed 12 months.

Food transportation companies with existing HACCP programs have a good start to meet the rules. For companies that may not be as prepared, compliance may be a year or two away; getting started now is important. Not all are covered by the rules. We will be taking a deep dive on each aspect of the Food Transportation Rules to help readers understand whether or not they are impacted and what is expected.

Refrigerated and frozen food transportation requires temperature control to ensure food safety

Forward-looking companies have already adopted many or some of the practices that will serve them well in meeting the new rules. For example, temperature-sensitive food transporters have installed SmartSense monitoring systems in their trucks to monitoring food items during transportation to ensure their shipment stays in a safe range. This system provides three critical components to assure food safety:

• Email, SMS, and phone call alerts that allow the transporter to take immediate action if temperatures exceed or fall below safe levels

• Real-time temperature dashboard that provides customers with demonstrated temperature control compliance for the products they receive

• Robust, and secure, online temperature logs that can be reviewed, downloaded or embedded into compliance reports

So the question to ask is this: is your organization ready to meet FSMA compliance? And if not, what systems and protocols need to be put in place to ensure you meet the new standards in food transport?