Heavy Duty Trucking, April 2019
HDT APRIL 2019 66 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM ince last September all truck operations that haul food for human or animal consumption have been required to comply with provisions of the Food and Drug Administrations Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food rule The rulemaking was required to satisfy aspects of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 which amounts to the largest reform to food safety in more than 70 years The rule STF for short at this point may still be an unfamiliar jumble in truckings overflowing bowl of alphabet soup And dealing with a rule that aims to protect every aspect of transporting food literally from farm to fork may appear extremely unappetizing But there is a blue plate special dished up by the regulators in which truckers may find some comfort food Under the STF rule food haulers comply by adhering to shipper requirements which means fleets are expected to follow best practices for temperature controlled freight established by shippers This rule builds on current safe food transportation best practices and is focused on ensuring that persons engaged in the transportation of food that is at the greatest risk for contamination during transportation follow appropriate sanitary transportation practices states FDA in its executive summary The agency describes the rule as flexible in that it allows the continued use of industry best practices concerning cleaning inspection maintenance loading and unloading of and operation of vehicles and How to swallow new rules of the road for hauling food To comply with the new sanitary food transportation rule reefer fleets must adhere to best practices for temperature controlled freight established by shippers To transport food compliantly fleets must adopt certain best practices and consider adding advanced technology transportation equipment to prevent food from spoiling in transit Yet as agreeable as flexible may sound failure to comply can have a huge financial impact on a fleet as Penske Truck Leasing points out in a resource post on its website about the STF rule If anyone in the supply chain becomes aware of possible temperature control failure or other conditions that may render the food unsafe during transportation the food cannot be sold or distributed Those costs can mount quickly Whats more the lessor stresses that failure to comply is prohibited and makes a motor carrier subject to injunction and criminal prosecution Order up In its best practices guide on sanitary food By David Cullen Executive Editor dcullen@ truckinginfo com TRAILERS BODIES S PHOTO STOUGHTON TRAILERS
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