Category: Transportation

Following the FSPCA Preventive Controls for Animal Food Training, I give a short introduction to the Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food rule. This is one of four FSMA rules the Animal Feed Industry must comply with. In July I learned that the FDA was creating web based training on this rule and that training has been released this week.

Who should take this training?

Continue reading “Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food Training Update”

The thing I value most about teaching the FSPCA Preventive Controls for Animal Food course is what I learn from participants. In the most recent class I was privileged to have two students from an international third party certification company. During discussions on Receiving cGMP’s and the Sanitary Transportation of Animal Food, the inevitable questions on what are acceptable clean out protocols for materials previously hauled and what is strictly prohibited. The student referred us here:

International Database Transport for Feed
http://www.icrt-idtf.com/en/index.php

Continue reading “International Database for the Transport of Feed”

21 CFR Part 1 and 11 – Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food Final Rule was released April 6, 2016.

The following paraphrases information published by the FDA on April 5, 2016 at http://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/FSMA/UCM383763.htm

This rule is one of seven foundational rules proposed since January 2013 to create a modern, risk-based framework for food safety. The goal of this rule is to prevent practices during transportation that create food safety risks, such as failure to properly refrigerate food, inadequate cleaning of vehicles between loads, and failure to properly protect feed.

* Remember “food” includes “animal feed” and I have changed the word “food” to “feed”

Key Requirements

• Vehicles and Transportation Equipment: The design and maintenance of vehicles and transportation equipment to ensure that it does not cause the feed that it transports to become unsafe.
• Transportation Operations:The measures taken during transportation to ensure feed safety, such as adequate temperature controls (if required for feed safety), protection of feed from contamination by non-feed items in the same load or previous load, and protection of feed from cross contamination. This section defines roles in the transportation operations for Shipper, Loader, Carrier and Receiver all with different responsibilities.
• Training:Training of carrier personnel in sanitary transportation practices and documentation of the training.
• Records:Maintenance of records of written procedures, agreements and training (required of carriers).

This applies to inbound and outbound shipments. If you arrange the freight on inbound shipments or if your company delivers feed on company vehicles there are compliance requirements.

Compliance Dates:  April, 2018

Exempt from the Rule (this is a narrow list of exemptions that could apply in the feed industry)

• Shippers, receivers, or carriers engaged in feed transportation operations that have less than $500,000 in average annual revenue
• Transportation activities performed by a farm
• Transportation of human food byproducts transported for use as animal feed without further processing
• Transportation of feed that is completely enclosed by a container except a feed that requires temperature control for safety
• Transportation of live food animals, except molluscan shellfish

Bottom Line: If you transport Bulk Feed, you need to address this rule in your SOP’s.