FDA finalizes new requirements for food haulers, excludes some small carrier operations

[kscarbel2]

Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ)  /  April 5, 2016

The federal government’s Food and Drug Administration released April 5 a Final Rule that sets new sanitation-related standards for food haulers and others in the supply chain, like shippers, who deal in the transportation of food products.

The rule does, however, have a notable exception for small companies: Carriers, shippers and receivers who bring in less than $500,000 in total annual revenue will not have to abide by the rule’s new procedures.

The rule’s key requirements for carriers include: (1) That carriers and drivers ensure their refrigerated trailers are pre-cooled prior to loading food, carriers/drivers provide upon request by shippers and receivers proof they’ve maintained the appropriate temperature for the food they’re hauling and (3) carriers develop and implement procedures that specify their practices for cleaning, sanitizing and inspecting their equipment.

The new rule also requires that shippers inspect carriers’ trailers prior to loading food products and requires any entity subject to its requirements, such as carrier personnel and drivers, to “take appropriation action to ensure that the food is not sold” if they become aware of any indication that a shipment of food was not kept at the proper temperature throughout its shipment.

Shippers will now also be required to give carriers written sanitation requirements for their vehicles and require shippers to keep records showing they’ve done as much.

The FDA says the rule likely won’t change carrier and shipper practices, saying it essentially only codifies already existing best practices for food shipments.

The rule will take effect a year following its April 6, 2016-scheduled publication date in the Federal Register.

[kscarbel2]

FDA releases final food transportation safety rule

Fleet Owner  /  April 5, 2016

Regulation marks the sixth major rule under FDA Food Safety Modernization Act

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized a new food safety rule Tuesday that will help to prevent food contamination during transportation.

The rule, under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), will require those involved in transporting human and animal food – shippers, loaders, carriers and receivers – to follow best practices for sanitary transportation, such as properly refrigerating food, adequately cleaning vehicles between loads and properly protecting food during transportation.

“Consumers deserve a safe food supply and this final rule will help to ensure that all those involved in the farm-to-fork continuum are doing their part to ensure that the food products that arrive in our grocery stores are safe to eat,” said Michael R. Taylor, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine.

The rule is the sixth of seven proposed since January 2013 and is part of a larger effort to focus on prevention of food safety problems throughout the food chain, and the rule implements the Sanitary Food Transportation Act of 2005 (SFTA). The seventh rule, which focuses on mitigation strategies to protect food against intentional adulteration, is expected to be finalized later in 2016.

The new rule will apply to food transported within the United States by motor or rail vehicle, whether or not the food is offered for or enters interstate commerce. It was proposed in February 2014 and takes into consideration more than 200 comments submitted by the transportation industry, food industry, government regulatory partners, international trading partners, consumer advocates, tribal organizations and others.

“We recognize the importance of education and training in achieving widespread compliance, and we are committed to working with both industry and our government partners to ensure effective implementation of all of the new food safety rules under the Food Safety Modernization Act,” Taylor said.

Businesses would be required to comply with the new regulation one year after publication of the final rule, with smaller businesses having two years to comply with the new requirements.

Key requirements include:

Vehicles and transportation equipment: 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.

Transportation operations: 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: 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.

Records: 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.

[kscarbel2]

FDA Previews Final Food Safety Transportation Rule

Transport Topics  /  April 5, 2016

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on April 5 previewed its final rule that creates new requirements for the sanitary transportation of human and animal food by truck and rail to ensure that transportation practices do not create safety risks.

“Practices that create such risk include failure to properly refrigerate food requiring temperature control for food safety, the inadequate cleaning of vehicles between loads and the failure to otherwise properly protect food during transportation,” the agency said in its rule scheduled for publication in the April 6 Federal Register.

The rule establishes requirements for sanitary transportation practices applicable to shippers, loaders, carriers by motor vehicle and rail vehicle, and receivers engaged in food transportation.

“Due to illness outbreaks involving human food and animal food that became contaminated during transportation, and incidents and reports of insanitary transportation practices, there have been concerns over the past few decades about the need to ensure that food is transported in the United States in a sanitary manner,” the rule said.

“Consumers deserve a safe food supply, and this final rule will help to ensure that all those involved in the farm-to-fork continuum are doing their part to ensure that the food products that arrive in our grocery stores are safe to eat,” Michael Taylor, FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, said in a statement.

The rule specifically addresses requirements related to vehicles and transportation equipment, transportation operations, training, records and waivers.

Businesses would be required to comply with the new regulation one year after publication of the final rule, with smaller businesses having two years to comply with the new requirements.

Jon Samson, executive director of American Trucking Associations’ Agricultural & Food Transporters Conference, said he generally was pleased with the final rule.

“There were some pretty significant changes made on the positive side,” Samson told Transport Topics.

Samson said the final rule will allow a food receiver to make the call whether the food was adulterated or not, if for example, a proper food temperature stipulated in a contract was not precisely maintained during transport.

The proposed rule would have automatically required that the food be declared as adulterated, Samson said.

“Also, they’re backing off on any sort of prescriptive requirements for temperature monitoring or continuous monitoring,” Samson said. “That was another big one because sometimes it isn’t necessary, especially if you’re doing shorthaul movements to constantly be monitoring the temperature.”

Some of the changes the agency made in its 283-page final rule to its 2014 proposed rule include:

• Simplified definitions for parties covered by the rule to make them all activity-based and added a definition for “loader” as a new party covered by the rule.

• Amended the definition of “transportation operations” such that additional transportation activities are not covered by the rule, including transport of food completely enclosed by a container, except food that requires temperature control for safety, food contact substances, and human food byproducts transported for use as animal food without further processing.

• Changed the provisions of the rule to focus on food safety concerns and not additionally adulteration as a result of spoilage or quality defects.

• Removed prescriptive requirements for temperature-monitoring devices and continuous monitoring of temperature during transport and replaced these provisions with a more flexible approach, which allows the shipper and carrier to agree to a temperature-monitoring mechanism for shipments of food that require temperature control for safety.

• Removed the provision requiring the carrier to demonstrate temperature control to the receiver for every shipment requiring temperature control.

• Revised the rule to require that if a person subject to the rule becomes aware of an indication of a possible material failure of temperature control or other conditions that may render the food unsafe during transportation.

• Revised the requirements of the final rule to make it clear that its requirements account for the fact that the intended use of the vehicle or equipment with respect to the type of food that is being transported is relevant in establishing the applicable sanitary transportation requirements.

• Revised the rule to primarily place the responsibility for determinations about appropriate transportation operations on the shipper.

The FDA said it received 240 comments on the proposed rule from individuals, industry and trade associations, consumer and advocacy groups, academia, law firms, professional organizations, federal and state, tribal and foreign government agencies and other organizations.
 

[grayhair]

Interesting stuff and good sensible steps towards improved food safety.  If the public was paying attention they would truly be pissed at our gutless House of Representatives who have sold us down the river on "Country of Origin" labeling.  Sold us out to the lobbyists.  What say y'all?  Are you good with eating hot-dogs from China?   Or shrimp raised in a SE Asia cesspool?

Read it and weep for our country.  See the names I highlighted in red below and vote these stinking bums out of office if you can.

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House Votes to Repeal Country-of-Origin Labeling for Meat

BY LYDIA ZURAW | JUNE 11, 2015

The House of Representatives has voted to repeal country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for beef, pork, and chicken.

Texas Republican Rep. Michael Conaway’s Country of Origin Labeling Amendments Act of 2015 passed late Wednesday night by a 300-131 vote.

Conaway introduced the bill on May 18 — the same day the World Trade Organization rejected a U.S. appeal of its decision that COOL unfairly discriminates against meat imports and gives the advantage to domestic meat products.

Two days later, the House Agriculture Committee passed the bill by 38-6.

COOL, which went into effect for meat in 2013, require that packaging indicate the country, or countries, where animals were born, raised and slaughtered.

Supporters of repeal don’t want the U.S. subjected to the $3.6 billion in potential retaliatory tariffs sought by Canada and Mexico. They also argue that the rule has already burdened the U.S. meat industry.

“The program has not worked, and it is time to put this failed experiment behind us once and for all,” Conaway said during the floor debate.

He and Reps. Dan Benishek (R-MI), Jim Costa (D-CA), David Rouzer (R-NC), David Scott (D-GA) and Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) asserted that COOL has no impact on food safety.

“Mandatory food labeling is not about food safety,” Benishek said. “No matter where our food comes from, regulations remain in place to ensure safety and traceability regardless of origin.”

But consumers want COOL, said several members opposed to the repeal, including Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA). After referencing a survey conducted by the Consumer Federation of America finding that 90 percent of Americans favored requiring a label with the country of origin on meat, he said that the response to the last WTO ruling was, “We don’t really care what the American people want. We’re just going to cave.”

“I think that’s the wrong way to proceed,” McGovern added.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), who spoke for seven minutes, said that despite comments from President Obama that, “No trade agreement is going to force us to change our laws,” the bill to repeal COOL shows that “trade agreements have a direct effect on our sovereignty.”

DeLauro said the same is possible of Trade Promotion Authority legislation to “fast track” trade deals, and she warned her colleagues to “beware of the road that you go down today.”

House Democrats who spoke on the floor in support of the bill included Reps. Costa, Scott, Sanford Bishop (D-GA), Mike Thompson (D-CA), Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) who said that, “COOL may have been well-intended, but we’ve lost four times at the WTO … let’s repeal it, let’s move on.”

Opponents of the bill argued that it is a premature move and includes products not addressed in the WTO decision.

“We’re rushing in a repeal that goes beyond just the disputed elements, adding poultry and raising questions, I think, about our commitment to being able to give consumers what they want,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR).

Instead, legislators should “take a deep breath” because no retaliatory tariffs are going to be quickly inflicted, he noted, adding, “This is a process that’s going to take months.”

“Critics of H.R. 2393 will say we have more time, but in truth, we don’t,” said Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA). “This final ruling is the fourth time WTO has ruled against the U.S. for various versions of COOL and, on this final appeal, WTO has given both Canada and Mexico the authority to impose more than $3 billion in combined retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. within 60 days of the ruling.”

The countdown was at 37 days on Wednesday, Newhouse said.

June 17 is the next meeting of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body, where members will consider Canada and Mexico’s retaliation lists. Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) stated that it will take some time to figure out “what the damage is” and then there will be an arbitration panel “to get everyone to agree that that’s exactly what it is.”

© Food Safety News

 

[kscarbel2]

FDA offering training to meet requirements of new food-hauling regs

Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ)  /  October 5, 2017

Carriers and drivers that fall under the requirements of new federal food-hauling regulations have a new training resource available to help meet the requirements of the rule.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has established an online food safety training module for trucking companies, free of charge. FDA’s Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food Rule requires training that provides awareness of potential food safety problems, basic sanitary practices and carrier responsibilities.

The agency says the training can be used to satisfy the requirements of the rule, or to complement other training offered by the carrier that meets the requirements of the rule.

Individuals who complete the online training module will be able to obtain a certificate of completion from the website. Carriers are also required to maintain records documenting training to be presented to FDA upon request.

The first compliance date for the rule was April 6, 2017, and small businesses covered by the rule must comply by April 6, 2018.

Other requirements of the rule, in addition to the training requirements, include: (1) That carriers and drivers ensure their refrigerated trailers are pre-cooled prior to loading food, (2) carriers/drivers provide upon request by shippers and receivers proof they’ve maintained the appropriate temperature for the food they’re hauling and (3) carriers develop and implement procedures that specify their practices for cleaning, sanitizing and inspecting their equipment.