Milling & Baking News - October 5, 2010 - 35

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F.D.A. warned of transportation capacity
impact of new sanitation rules
WASHINGON - The National Grain
and Feed Association in a statement
recently submitted to the Food and
Drug Administration urged the
agency to recognize transportation
capacity constraints confronting
U.S. agriculture in implementing the
Sanitary Food Transportation Act
(S.F.T.A.) of 2005. The statement was
in response to the F.D.A.'s advance
notice of proposed rulemaking in
connection with the agency's responsibility for developing regulations to
implement the law.
Out of concern steps had to be
taken to protect food and feed from
foodborne hazards during transport,
Congress passed the Safe Food
Transportation Act in 1990
and delegated the responsibility for developing
and implementing regulations to the Department
of Transportation. But the
D.O.T. said it did not possess the necessary expertise to implement the law's
provisions. Congress later
passed a new version of the law in
2005 and directed the F.D.A. to develop the implementing regulations.
The F.D.A. noted in recent years it
addressed the sanitary transportation of food in several regulations and
guidance documents.
"However, each of these regulations and guidance documents was
limited in scope, e.g. to a particular
circumstance, such as decontamination of food transport vehicles that
have been flooded or otherwise affected by hurricanes, before being
placed back in service to transport or
store food, or to a particular segment
of the food industry, such as fresh
produce," the F.D.A. said.
The advance notice of proposed
rulemaking, announced April 30,
was the first step in writing federal
regulations that will govern sanitary
practices by all shippers, carriers by
motor vehicle or rail vehicle, receivers and others engaged in the transportation of food for humans and
animals. Comments on the notice,
including those submitted by the
N.G.F.A., were accepted until Aug.
30. After considering the comments,
the F.D.A. was expected sometime in
2011 to develop and submit for public comment proposed regulations to
implement the law.
Also on April 30, the F.D.A. issued a
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guidance for industry on the sanitary
transportation of food, which reflected
the agency's thinking on the issue.
"This guidance differs from prior
regulations and guidances in that it
provides all sectors of the food industry with broadly applicable recommendations," the F.D.A. said.
The N.G.F.A. statement in relation
to the advance notice of proposed
rulemaking affirmed it is the transportation provider's legal responsibility
to supply clean, appropriate and safe
conveyances suitable for transporting

Washington

2002 and 2007, the value of all U.S.
transported products (agricultural
and nonagricultural) grew 41%, while
the tonnage hauled increased 12% and
ton-miles transported increased 11%.
"In this environment of constrained
transportation capacity and expanding demand from the U.S. agricultural,
food, feed and nonagricultural sectors
for transportation of all modes -
truck, rail, barge and vessel, we urge
the F.D.A., whenever possible, to recognize existing cleanout procedures
that are appropriate and suitable for
conveyances transporting food and
agricultural products for their intended uses, rather than banning the use

'In this environment of constrained transportation capacity
and expanding demand from the U.S. agricultural, food, feed
and nonagricultural sectors for transportation of all modes -
truck, rail, barge and vessel, we urge the F.D.A., whenever
possible, to recognize existing cleanout procedures that are
appropriate and suitable for conveyances transporting food
and agricultural products for their intended uses, rather
than banning the use of certain conveyances that have dual
uses in hauling other products.'
- National Grain and Feed Association

food and agricultural commodities.
"This legal obligation is reasonable
because it is the carrier or other provider of transportation vehicles that
knows the contents of the previous
loads and is responsible for implementing prudent and effective cleanout procedures to preserve product
safety," the N.G.F.A. said.
But the N.G.F.A. also pointed to the
already heavy demand for conveyances needed to transport food and agricultural products, including grains,
oilseeds, feed and feed ingredients.
It noted transportation demand from
U.S. agriculture is forecast to increase
dramatically given the growing demand for food, feed and biofuels in
domestic and export markets.
Also cited was a major study conducted by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture and the D.O.T. and published in April that projected overall
freight demand may double by 2035.
The study showed competition for
finite transportation resources is intense with U.S. agriculture the single
largest user of freight transportation,
accounting for 22% of all tonnage and
31% of all ton miles in the most recent
year (2007) for which data are available. The study also showed between

of certain conveyances that have dual
uses in hauling other products," the
N.G.F.A. said.
The N.G.F.A.'s statement also emphasized the association's initiatives
on food and feed safety pertaining to
transportation, including the inclusion of provisions in the association's
trade rules that require shipments to
be free of objectionable extraneous
material and that buyers/receivers
verify the condition of inbound shipments to ascertain they conform to
contract specifications, including for
product safety and wholesomeness.
The N.G.F.A.'s trade rules are incorporated by reference into the vast majority of commercial U.S. grain and
feed transactions, it said.
Additionally, product safety provisions were incorporated by the
N.G.F.A. that apply to transportation
conveyances in its Model Feed Quality Assurance Program, which was
developed in 1994 as the first feed
industry trade association program.
The N.G.F.A.'s statement referred to
its development of model procedures
in conjunction with the F.D.A. to safeguard against residues of prohibited
mammalian material in conveyances
in response to the agency's regulations
Milling & Baking News October 5, 2010 / 33

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