Best Practices
The Focus of FSMA Transportation Rules
The transportation rules in the Food Safety Modernization Act focus on best practices for transporting perishable produce items. The good news with these rules is many of the best practices are determined by the shippers, 3PLs and carriers. The rules require more documentation and more communication, but it is not overly burdensome. Increased communication should actually help produce transportation and eliminate some claims. Shippers, 3PLs and carriers that have already implemented best practices will find the rules fairly easy to deal with and the rules will validate many of the best practices already in place.
The produce industry has done a very good job safely transporting produce. The FDA had a very difficult time of finding examples of loads that were contaminated by something in the trailers or containers. They had trouble because it just does not happen with any measurable frequency. What does happen is produce loads that have problems due to poor temperatures. The rules naturally became more focused on documenting and maintaining proper temperatures while produce is being transported. The industry has already put in place best practices to deal with proper temperature. Proper pre-cooling, efficient loading, trailers condition and unloading best practices are well documented and available to all involved in the produce supply chain.
Where can you find the best practices now? Here are the three excellent sources that are general best practices for the supply chain:
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The North American Transportation Working Group published their Best Practices Documents in 2011 at www.naptwg.org
Item specific best practices are supplied by shippers and receivers every day. Shipping bananas has different handling best practices than do strawberries. What is critical is that these practices are communicated and understood by all involved. This will continue to improve produce transportation and that has been our goal all along. Healthy produce for all!
Kenny Lund
Vice President, Support Operations
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Kenny Lund graduated from Loyola Marymount with a degree in Business Administration. In 2002, Lund was promoted to Vice President of the IT Department, and is now VP of Support Operations. In 2014 he started working with the ALC Logistics division to sell Transportation Management Systems (TMS) to companies that manage refrigerated transportation.
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About Allen Lund Company: Specializing as a national third-party transportation broker with nationwide offices, the Allen Lund Company works with shippers and carriers across the nation to transport dry, refrigerated (specializing in produce), and flatbed freight; additionally, the Allen Lund Company has an international division, which is licensed by the FMC as an OTI-NVOCC #019872NF, and a logistics and software division, ALC Logistics.
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