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This information can be used to develop food safety and quality programs that meet the requirements of modern Regulatory, Customer and Industry Standards:
When considering the development, documentation, and implementation of Transport Standards within food safety and quality management systems, the following information should be considered to ensure effective outcomes.
Transportation is one of the most important steps in the process flow of modern food chains, and ironically, one that is commonly overlooked within the HACCP scope of many food businesses. This includes the transport of all risk categories from low to high-risk foods, raw materials, and other materials such as chemicals. Internal and external transport methods must be considered to ensure all potential hazards are controlled throughout all stages of any food business operation.
Where the transport of food is the responsibility of the food business, all transport requirements should be included within the process flow diagram, hazard analysis, and HACCP audit table. A transport policy should also be documented and implemented to include:
Where transport contractors are used to providing transportation services, they should be included within the approved supplier program, and the following requirements can be defined with a supplier agreement or contract:
Where the transport of food is the responsibility of the customer, a documented contract should be formatted to include accountability and responsibility for products regarding ownership, as well as any other relevant requirements.
Receival, Dispatch, and Transport security measures may include purchasing raw materials only from designated approved suppliers, establishing controls on incoming deliveries, limiting driver access to the food business during deliveries, thorough inspection and inventory accounting of delivered materials, use of tamper-evident packaging for finished products, and the use of tamper-evident seals on incoming and outgoing transport.
Contemporary Food Safety and Quality programs and systems often include requirements for the securing of transport modules or vehicles to reduce the risk of deliberate sabotage or terrorist-type events. In such cases, transport modules or vehicles may be secured physically, or by a system that permits the real-time acknowledgment of potential tampering. An example of a physical transport security mechanism may include the physical locking of transport modules or vehicles where these can only be opened by nominated participants within the supply chain. Where security systems are used instead of physical measures, these may include the implementation of controlled tamper-proof transport seals, mandated transport protocols, and/or specified tamper-proof mechanisms for the product (rather than the transport module or vehicle).
It is generally considered best practice to ensure that any implemented Transport Security protocols, physical mechanisms, and related controls are documented and agreed upon with relevant parties to provide a consistent controlled approach. Related requirements are commonly included within Transport specifications and service agreements between the dispatching entity, the receiving entity, and any other process participants and stakeholders.
Food must be adequately protected during transport. The type of conveyances or containers required depends on the nature of the food and the conditions under which it has to be transported. Food may become contaminated, or may not reach its destination in a suitable condition for consumption unless effective control measures are taken during transport, even where adequate hygiene control measures have been taken earlier in the food chain.
Measures should be taken where necessary to:
In doing so, conveyor systems and bulk containers should be designed and constructed so that they:
Conveyor systems and containers for transporting food should be kept in an appropriate state of cleanliness, repair, and condition. Where the same conveyance or container is used for transporting different foods, or non-foods, effective cleaning and, where necessary, disinfection should take place between loads. Where appropriate, particularly in bulk transport, containers and conveyances should be designated and marked for food use only and be used only for that purpose.
Procedures should be in place to:
Because of the way in which our food supply chains have evolved over time, many businesses use third-party contractors to provide a transportation service for the foods we consume.
It is important to consider that transport of food products, including raw materials, work in progress of finished product may also occur internally within a food business. In such instances, it is crucial to the integrity of any established HACCP Plans that all transportation routes are identified within the Process Flow Diagram and assessed accordingly for potential hazards.
Refrigerated Containers (Reefer Containers) are ideally used as shipping containers for the worldwide trade of food. Such containers are equipped with generators that cool the content of the container. Containers that are used for the transportation of food should be clean, disinfected, constructed of appropriate materials (stainless steel), free of any holes or seepages. Food Containers must also be fumigated as and when necessary. Containers used for international transport must have a valid safety approval plate or CSC (Container Safety Convention) plate.
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Transport Standards Development requirements in relation to their items.
Document: A document provides guidance and/or direction for performing work, making decisions, or rendering judgments that affect the safety or quality of the products or services that customers receive.
Documented policies, procedures, work instructions, and schedules form the basis of any food safety and quality management system. The following documentation formats may be considered to ensure ongoing compliance with specified requirements for Transport Standards:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Transport Standards Documentation requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Transport Standards Templates section of haccp.com for examples of Transport Standards documentation, record, and resource formats commonly applied within food safety and quality systems.
Implementation: Implementation is the application of documented food safety and quality system elements into the actual business operation.
The implementation of Transport Standards within any food business requires genuine commitment from senior management, staff, and visitors to ensure the nominated goals of implementation are achievable on an ongoing basis. It is a step that requires significant planning and consideration of general and specific food business circumstances to ensure the outcomes of Transport Standards do not negatively impact the safety and quality of the food items dispatched from the business.
Implementation of Transport Standards must include a clear definition of responsibilities and authorities for all levels of participation by senior management, staff, and visitors to the site.
When implementing Transport Standards within food safety and quality system, you may wish to consider the following requirements before completion:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Transport Standards Implementation requirements in relation to their items.
Monitoring: Monitoring is the act of reviewing and confirming measurable parameters of a defined process or product status.
Monitoring requirements within food industry sectors are generally identified against limits of acceptability defined within HACCP plans, implementation procedures, and work instructions. Monitoring usually includes some element of record-keeping, which may be maintained manually or through digital systems. It is important to consider that advancements in technology have spawned many systems and processes which are self-monitored and or self-adjusted when variances are identified. Regardless of the system used, the goal of any monitoring activity is to provide sufficient evidence that any limit of acceptability has been met.
Traditional Transport Standards monitoring requirements include manual recording and the application of corrective actions when the results of monitoring are found to be outside acceptable limits. Corrective Actions should also generally be strongly linked to the monitoring process where applied to ensure full traceability of the applied actions.
Common monitoring activities and record formats may apply to Transport Standards:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Transport Standards Monitoring requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Transport Standards Templates section of haccp.com for examples of Transport Standards documentation, record, and resource formats commonly applied within food safety and quality systems.
Corrective Action: Corrective action is mandatory action to be taken when a deviation to the Quality System occurs, particularly in relation to a Critical Control Point.
Preventative Action: At any step in the process where a hazard has been identified, preventative action must be put into place to prevent re-occurrence.
Corrective Action and Preventative Action are implemented to ensure that any identified non-conformance issues are documented, investigated, and rectified within appropriate time frames. Corrective action is any action applied to regain control over a product, process, policy, or procedure that has been identified as being non-conforming outside nominated limits of acceptability. Preventative action is any action applied to prevent any identified non-conformance from reoccurring.
The outcomes of corrective and preventative actions should result in regained process control after effective application. Specified corrective actions are commonly linked to the HACCP Plans and the food business certification process.
Below are Corrective Action and Preventative Action examples which may be associated with Transport Standards related non-conformance:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Transport Standards Corrective Action requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Corrective Action and Preventative Action section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Verification: The act of reviewing, inspecting, testing, checking, auditing, or otherwise establishing and documenting whether items, processes, services, or documents conform to specified requirements.
Verification is the detailed review of all food safety and quality system elements to confirm that they are effectively developed, documented, implemented, monitored, and reviewed. All food safety and quality system elements, including documented policies, procedures, training, HACCP plans, and their operational applications must be verified on an ongoing scheduled basis. The verification process commonly includes a defined schedule for which verification activities are required, how often they are conducted, who is responsible, and detailed documented procedures for each nominated verification activity.
The general goal of an established verification process is to ensure any systemic non-conformance issues are identified and rectified within an appropriate time frame. When non-conformance issues are identified through the verification process, Corrective Actions and Preventative Actions should be implemented to ensure they do not impact the effectiveness of the food safety and quality system.
The following examples of verification activities may apply to Transport Standards:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Transport Standards Verification requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Verification Activities section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Validation: The process of gathering evidence to provide a scientific basis for the documented act of demonstrating that a procedure, process, and activity will consistently lead to the expected results. It often includes the qualification of systems and equipment.
Validation is the provision of evidence to support the limits of control or acceptability for food safety or quality parameters nominated within systemic elements. Limits of control or acceptability are commonly included within documented food safety and quality systems elements such as procedures, HACCP plans, and specifications.
Common sources of validation include regulatory and legislative standards, finished product specifications and customer requirements, industry codes of practice and guidelines, verified and validated research, historical product, and process control outcomes, and analytical testing.
The general goal of an established validation process is to ensure any systemic non-conformance issues are identified and rectified within an appropriate time frame. When non-conformance issues are identified through the verification process, Corrective Actions and Preventative Actions should be implemented to ensure they do not impact the effectiveness of the food safety and quality system.
Validation activities are commonly defined within the verification schedules and procedures of established food safety and quality management systems.
The following examples may apply to validation of the limits of control or acceptability for Transport Standards:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Transport Standards Validation requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Validation Activities section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Skills and Knowledge: Skills and knowledge are attributes of human interactions commonly linked to competency within any specified job-related task.
Training and competency requirements for Transport Standards must be ongoing, including regularly scheduled reviews to ensure the effectiveness of training and competency outcomes.
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Transport Standards should have a knowledge including:
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Transport Standards should have skills including:
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Transport Standards should have access to resources including:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Transport Standards Training, Competency, and Resources requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Training, Competency, and Resources section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
haccp.com was created to support food businesses and food industry professionals in achieving and maintaining the stringent requirements of food industry compliance.