Distributors should have trained personnel inspecting the quality, condition and
temperature of inbound products—especially perishable items. An in-house quality assurance program should include daily in-slot inspections of perishable products.
What happens to products that don’t pass the quality test?
Products close to their expiration date or damaged while at the facility should be
logged, segregated from other products for further inspection and returned to the supplier or dumped, if necessary.
Who inspects the facility? How often, and is it on a pre-determined schedule or by surprise?
Warehouse sanitation requires continuous effort at multiple levels. Supervisors
should ensure floor and in-slot cleanliness on an ongoing basis. Audits should be regularly conducted by management. Many distributors contract with independent, third-party audit companies that conduct inspections at least once a year. Best-in-class
companies hold inspections twice a year to identify and correct any food safety and
Food Defense in Your
Distribution System
An important part of safeguarding the nation’s food supply involves protecting
food in transit—90% of which is shipped by truck. Because of globalization, the
journey that food takes from field to fork can be thousands of miles, with many
stops along the way. Shipping challenges include the vast size of the area covered, the broad number of food distributors and their varied levels of knowledge
about food defense, the relative lack of government regulation, the potential for
unobserved access to food products and a less-controlled setting that makes
safeguards more challenging to implement.
A successful food protection program must focus on two areas: food defense
and food safety. “Food defense” means preventing intentional adulteration by biological, chemical, physical or radiological agents. “Food safety” refers to guarding
food against unintentional contamination.
“The distribution of ingredients and products is a vital component of our food
delivery system, which is why it’s important for food distributors and companies
to know their suppliers and understand the food protection measures being
used,” says Jon Woody, policy analyst for the U.S. FDA’s Office of Food Defense,
Communication and Emergency Response.
Three food categories are considered to be especially vulnerable to contamination. Perishable products, such as meat or dairy products, must be monitored
closely because their relatively short shelf-lives. The second category includes
products that require extensive human interaction to be ready for market, such as
produce or nuts that can come from multiple suppliers and are mixed and repackaged multiple times. The category of secondary ingredients, such as seasonings,
breadings and peanut butter, is also especially susceptible to contamination.
Woody says food suppliers and distributors should have food defense plans in
place that restrict access to facilities, and call for padlocks on truck trailers and
regular, company-wide vulnerability assessments.
FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) has released a
number of initiatives designed to help suppliers, distributors and operators on the
food defense front. Those initiatives are: ALERT (targeting foodservice managers),
FIRST (aimed at employees, the first line of defense) and CARVER+Shock, a comprehensive online planning tool to help companies set food defense priorities. Information about all of them can be downloaded from the CFSAN Web site.
One other useful tool comes from the U.S.D.A’s Food Safety and Inspection
Service (FSIS). The FSIS Guide to Developing a Food Defense Plan for Warehouse
and Distribution Centers is a 15-page, step-by-step document that includes evaluation forms covering everything from outside security to personnel to developing
and implementing the overall plan.
The bottom line is that having a food defense plan helps suppliers, distributors
and operators maintain the safety of the food products they handle—and most of
all, helps protect everyone’s business.
sanitation issues. Distributors should be
able to show you recent audit records.
On the Trucks
What are basic requirements for trucks to
meet food safety standards?
Delivery vehicles should be of sturdy
construction so as to permit easy rear-and side-door locking and sealing. Trucks
should be sufficiently insulated and refrigerated so as to protect cargo against
damage. Interior walls and floors should
be clean and free of cracks or holes that
could allow the entry of pests, vermin or
dust, or negatively impact temperature
control. As with the facility, the truck design should permit effective inspection,
cleaning, disinfection and temperature
control. Ideally, interior surfaces should
be made of materials suitable for direct
food contact, such as stainless steel or
food-grade epoxy resins.
Regular cleaning programs are needed
to keep the container interior free of dirt
and debris. Equal attention to cleanliness
is required for cargo pallets, load-secur-ing devices and loading equipment such
as hand trucks, forklifts and conveyors.
When possible, transport vehicles should
be reserved for “food use only” to reduce
risks of cross-contamination.
What are your pre-loading procedures?
The pre-loading check should make
sure that any residues from previous
cargo have been removed. The cooling
unit should be checked to make sure it’s
in good repair and operational. Portable
bulkheads should be in good condition,
free from tears or holes, and form a tight
seal when in use. Air chutes (if present)
should be properly in place for effective
air circulation. Trailers should be precooled at least an hour before loading to
chill insulation and air.
How does a distributor handle loads that
include both frozen and refrigerated products?
The optimum transport method for
mixed loads is to use trailers with compartments set at different temperatures,
created through the use of portable, insulated bulkheads. Typically, frozen products are in the forward compartment at 0
°F or below, and cooler/dry product is in
the rear at 41 °F or below. The practice
of transporting frozen and refrigerated
mixed loads in one compartment set at
an intermediate temperature is not advisable for times longer than a few hours.
