Food transport and container hygiene

Hello,

I'm a student seeking answers regarding the FSMA, food transport, and container hygiene.

It seems like the FSMA leaves things somewhat open-ended, as far as how to maintain "appropriate sanitary conditions." I'm having trouble finding solid definitions for "effective measures," "appropriate controls," "appropriate means," and "appropriate sanitary conditions."

Can anyone recommend a source of information to help me find industry standards, guidelines, and/or best practices? Is there a shipping container trade association that you'd typically refer to?


Any information, or suggestions as to where I might be able to find answers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Mike Fisher

 

Hello,

 

I'm a student seeking answers regarding the FSMA, food transport, and container hygiene. 

 

It seems like the FSMA leaves things somewhat open-ended, as far as how to maintain "appropriate sanitary conditions." I'm having trouble finding solid definitions for "effective measures," "appropriate controls," "appropriate means," and "appropriate sanitary conditions."

 

Can anyone recommend a source of information to help me find industry standards, guidelines, and/or best practices? Is there a shipping container trade association that you'd typically refer to?

 

 

Any information, or suggestions as to where I might be able to find answers would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Mike Fisher

 

Hi Mike,

Welcome to the Forum ! :welcome:

I assume you meant the FSMA requirements relating to food transport / container hygiene so I manouevred the sub-Forum slightly.

I haven't checked if any use yr query  but i suppose you are aware there is an "official" detailed FSMA training manual (FSPCA) downloadable on the IT and posted many times on this Forum ?.

Thanks for your response, and welcoming me. 

That's a great source of information, although it seems to focus on food manufacturing rather than transportation. I think it's safe to assume that following preventive controls and sanitization outlined for manufacturing would be meet, or exceed, expectations of the sanitary conditions for food transport. still, it would be nice to be able to cite a source of information which says this.

Am I missing something, or confusing some terminology? Can transport be considered a part of manufacture, by using the right definition?

I appreciate the help. I'll keep reading, and try to find the answers (I don't want to ask too much of the people here)

Thanks,

Mike

Thanks for your response, and welcoming me. 

 

That's a great source of information, although it seems to focus on food manufacturing rather than transportation. I think it's safe to assume that following preventive controls and sanitization outlined for manufacturing would be meet, or exceed, expectations of the sanitary conditions for food transport. still, it would be nice to be able to cite a source of information which says this.

 

Am I missing something, or confusing some terminology? Can transport be considered a part of manufacture, by using the right definition?

 

I appreciate the help. I'll keep reading, and try to find the answers (I don't want to ask too much of the people here)

 

Thanks,

Mike

Hi Mike,

This is a question of Scope, for example some FS presentations include distribution, retailing, etc.

Typically traditional HACCP scope focuses primarily on the Production process ending at "Storage" although often sucks in Purchasing/Receiving raw materials as  Prerequisites or even directly. There is no absolute definition.

I'm not a user of FSMA and I don't offhand recall the Scope. It's presumably defined somewhere though. IIRC Supply Chains are certainly relevant prior to the Manufacturing "Process". But after ? The official FSMA details are all in CFR afaik.

PS - It's no problem to ask. Not always possible to get answers though.

Not related to FSMA by jurisdiction, but FSIS has pretty good guidance on sanitary food transport in this document: http://www.fsis.usda..._Guidelines.pdf, and I've always been able to use cross-agency guidance as a reference with regulators (when deferring to the stricter requirement of the two of course).