New Rules For Shipping Food By Truck

Refrigerated shipments of food by truck will be facing new regulations in 2014. The rules, set forth by the US Food and Drug Administration, will provide a way to make the transportation of food safer for people and for animals. The objective is to decrease contamination in the transportation process, which will prevent food-related illnesses. These rules in 2014 are part of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

Shippers and trucking carriers with less than $500,000 in yearly revenue would be required to follow these new rules. Even freight forwarders have to monitor the rules. Some of the new rules require proper refrigeration for food that is shipped on the truck. Trucking carriers must guarantee clean vehicles on the road. There must also be training for workers and truck drivers to make sure that healthy measures are practiced to ensure sanitization standards of food. The carriers must keep accurate records of food transportation, which will be used for an information exchange. In addition, shippers must inspect open food, like fruit in boxes, prior to transporting.

Even if you do not ship food, this issues concerns the entire freight trucking process because refrigerated shipping is such a big part of the transportation industry. As of now, the law is not set in stone. In the following weeks, the FDA will be having public meetings to hear what other people think of the new proposed rules. It will certainly be interesting to see how the new rules play out in the public meetings.