Food Transportation

What is Food Transportation?

Food transportation is the process of moving food from producers to consumers. Due to the risk of contamination during transit, transportation becomes a crucial factor that food manufacturing businesses consider to ensure safety. It uses different modes of transportation including air, road, rail, and water.

Importance

Finished products and raw materials have different lifespans depending on the items being delivered. Choosing the right method of transportation ensures that food remains fresh, safe, and of high quality, leading to other benefits for the business:

• Avoids business disruption, lawsuits, and customer complaints due to food poisoning or cross-contamination incidents

• Helps the business maintain its credibility in meeting food standards;

• Ensures compliance with food safety transportation standards to avoid food contamination

• Guarantees timely delivery of goods to any part of the world, increasing reliability and customer satisfaction

Modes of Transportation

Choosing the appropriate means of transport for perishable and non-perishable goods helps ensure that food arrives in excellent quality and on time. The following are the different modes of transportation you can choose from:

• Land transport: This mode of transport delivers food to airports, seaports, and dry ports. One example is trucks, whether refrigerated or freight, which companies use to transport perishable and non-perishable food. Another example are trains, which businesses normally use for bulk food transport. It’s a flexible mode of transport that’s also available for direct deliveries. However, among these methods, trucking is the most common in the United States and it makes up around 70.5% of all food transportation.

• Maritime transport: It’s considered to be the most frequent mode of transporting food to farther locations. It uses container ships, bulk carriers, and reefer ships to transfer large volumes of food. Container ships and reefer ships specialize in transporting perishable foods (e.g., meat, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products) due to their refrigerated container and controlled temperatures.

• Air transport: This mode of transport is suitable for food that needs immediate delivery to maintain its freshness. It contains a cargo freight that has its own cooling systems to help maintain food quality. Additionally, staff store food for transport in the passenger plane’s cargo hold, commonly referred to as the belly cargo.

• Multi-modal transport: This integrates two or more modes of transport to cut down the travel time of deliveries. Some examples include combinations of air and land transport, and sea and land transport.

Food Safety Transportation Standards

Food transportation must uphold food quality standards and adhere to assigned schedules to prevent food contamination, especially with easy-to-perish goods. With this in mind, business owners should be aware of the food transportation requirements they must follow.

Sanitary Food Transportation Act of 2005

The Sanitary Food Transportation Act of 2005 requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish sanitary transportation practices. These practices ensure that food—including animal feeds—transported by rail or motor vehicle should not be transported under contaminating conditions.

Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed in January 4, 2011 to shift the focus of food safety from reaction to prevention. It gave the FDA more power to establish the following requirements:

• Vehicles and transportation equipment: All vehicles used to transport food must be properly designed to ensure safety. Installing sensors can maintain the appropriate temperature for frozen products. Additionally, proper vehicle maintenance can preserve and maximize a vehicle’s performance, ensuring roadworthiness and avoiding delays for time-sensitive food products.

• Transportation operations: Precautionary measures must be implemented during transport to ensure safety. Some measures include maintaining proper temperature controls, keeping raw food seperate from ready-to-eat foods, and avoiding loading non-food items in the same load or in a previous load.

• Training: Employees who are assigned to food transportation must learn sanitary transportation practices. Proper documentation of food safety training should be provided when the carrier and shipper agree that the carrier is responsible for sanitary conditions during transport.

• Records: It’s necessary to keep records of written procedures, agreements, and training to promote traceability and provide documentation of food business compliance to appropriate practices. The required retention time to keep a record should not exceed 12 months.

Food Transportation Issues

Different industries face various challenges, and the food industry is not exempt. In 2019, the United States encountered key challenges in food transportation,  such as driver shortages, environmental impacts, and sanitation standards compliance. These challenges made companies identify the following gaps to improve their food transportation:

Must-arrive-by dates (MABDs) and retailer chargebacks

MABDs are a strict delivery date agreement between manufacturer and customers. It can be set depending on the parameters such as pallet configuration, appointment scheduling, confirmation processes, business operating hours, and preferred carriers that are agreed upon by both parties. Failure to comply with the said dates, considering the parameters set, incurs fees that can lead to business disruption, decreased profitability, and customer dissatisfaction.

Refrigerated shipping

Perishability is one of the most common factors to consider when transporting food. It’s important to consider food lifespan and compute its food miles to determine the best transportation method. Using temperature-controlled transportation is recommended for shipping temperature-sensitive goods, such as medical products, ice cream, meat, wine, and others. Bear in mind that the availability of refrigerated vehicles is also impacted by seasonality.

Less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping

This is a good option for manufacturers who do not have enough freight to fill a full truck, but it also involves high risks. A large mix of products loaded together may pose a risk of contamination. This type of shipping could also affect the MABDs.

Handling and contamination

Food handling is a process of preparing food that’s safe for public consumption. It’s necessary to comply with safe food handling processes to avoid contamination that can cause outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, such as salmonella. The presence of any cross-contaminant could spread throughout the packaging and spoil the goods being shipped. Multiple transfers of goods can also damage the packaging or the product itself,it’s advisable to have direct consumer transactions to reduce the risk of contamination.

Food safety hazards

Keeping vehicles free of debris and odor before loading products prevents three classifications of food safety hazards.

• Biological hazards: These are about pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, and others.

• Chemical hazards: These refer to chemicals that may spoil and contaminate the food such as allergens, pesticides, and food additives.

• Physical hazards: These refer to foreign objects that can end up in food such as broken glasses, plastic pieces, and metal fragments.

Best Practices When Transporting Food

Food handling, packing, and transporting are important factors of food safety. Being aware of best practices and complying with regulatory standards can help organizations ensure quality food delivery. Here are the best practices for transporting food under the three key factors of food safety.

Product: It’s important to preserve the products’  quality and ensure their safe delivery to customers. Here are best practices when handling food products that are being prepared for delivery:

• Inspect goods for insects and pests to avoid widespread infestation.

• Use airtight containers to store dried goods and avoid using cardboard boxes.

• Keep dried goods at least 15 centimeters from the floor.

• Discard damaged goods immediately to prevent contamination.

• Maintain the appropriate temperature and if possible keep goods in a well-ventilated area away from direct sunlight.

• Keep humidity levels as low as possible.

Transportation – Food can easily be contaminated if containers and vehicles are unclean. All transportation modes should be in good condition and have the capability to keep food at the right temperature. Here are best practices to secure food transportation:

• Choose the appropriate method of transportation.

• Ensure vehicle roadworthiness to avoid delivery delays.

• Keep it clean and in good condition in a way to minimize food contamination.

• Separate different types of food, such as raw and ready-to-eat food, from non-food items.

• Use insulating cargo blankets or pallet covers to protect the product against freezing temperatures.

• Refrigerate certain types of food that require storage at a low temperature.

People – All staff and food handlers should be properly trained to maintain food safety and food hygiene. Employees should be careful when loading and transporting goods to ensure they remain intact and maintain product quality. It’s the employees’ responsibility to:

• Secure proper loading and unloading of goods.

• Maintain good personal hygiene.

• Monitor sanitation associated with food transportation procedures.

• Keep communications between shipper, transporter, and receiver.