Responsibilities, Potential Food Safety Problems, Sanitary Transportation Practices: Test Version

Login to the link, pay the registration fee and wait for a return email.  You must login and register your name, password and other information before you start the course.  When the course downloads into the computer, make sure your speakers are on.  Listen to training and complete the exam.

The final rules on the Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Foods establish training requirements for all carrier personnel engaged in food transportation operations. Training certificates are required for these topics:

1. Responsibilities of the carrier under the final rules
2. Awareness of potential food safety problems that may occur during food transportation
3. Basic sanitary transportation practices to address those potential problems

This training is not “maybe” training but is REQUIRED for all carrier personnel engaged in transportation operations upon hiring and as needed thereafter. Trainees are required to take an exam at the end of each module. 

There are a total of 60 questions. 
Session 1 = 15 questions
Session 2 = 20 questions
Session 3 = 25 questions

The minimum passing score is 60% for each module.
You may take the exam up to 3 times.
A certificate is only rewarded for trainees scoring a minimum of 60% on every module.

Over 84,000 food shippers, carriers and receivers are impacted by this new law and most have less than one year for full compliance. This new law may require significant changes to procedures currently employed for food transportation operations, personnel, vehicles, containers, trailers tools and equipment used in food transportation. The final rules have now established the law which has significant differences from earlier published proposed food transportation rules, laws and guidance documents. Self-reporting of compliance failures is required as are critical shipper-carrier agreements for data, records and reporting.

The FDA defines a carrier as a “person who owns, leases, or is otherwise ultimately responsible for the use of a motor vehicle or rail vehicle to transport food. The carrier is responsible for all functions assigned to a carrier in this subpart even if they are performed by other persons, such as a driver that is employed or contracted by a trucking firm. A carrier may also be a receiver or a shipper if the person also performs the functions of those respective persons. 

The new law was published on April 6, 1016, which mean there is little time left for perishable food carrier operations to develop and implement risk reducing preventive food handling, load and un-load, as well as make distribution and transportation process improvements.

Who is impacted by the FDA Rules on the Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Foods?

The final law applies to shippers, receivers, loaders, and carriers engaged in transportation operations whether or not the food is being offered for or enters interstate commerce. 

Shippers requirements to provide information to carriers

Under the law, a shipper is defined as a person who initiates a shipment of food by motor vehicle or rail vehicle. If you are classified as a shipper, you are responsible for assuring that your carriers comply with U.S. FDA food transportation training and related records requirements. We recommend that you notify your carriers as soon as possible.
Under § 1.912 record retention and other records requirements apply to shippers and carriers engaged in transportation operations. Shippers must retain records that demonstrate that they provide information to carriers as required.

What carriers are exempt from these training requirements?
1. Carriers with an average annual income less than $500,000 requirements.
2. Carriers of food completely enclosed by a container 
3. Carriers of live food animals, except molluscan shellfish
Required Training: A training certificate is issued to each trainee

Course 1: Responsibilities of the Carrier Under the Final Rules (1 hour)

Session 1 covers the Final Rules on the Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Foods (now law) as published by the Food and Drug Administration under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). 

Learning objectives:
• Understand US FDA FSMA Law for the Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Foods
• Understand changes from the proposed FDA FSMA rules
• Know the different requirements for shippers, carriers and receivers
• Know who is exempted
• Understand the FDA waiver requirements

Course 2: Awareness of Potential Food Safety Problems That May Occur During Transportation

This session covers bacteria, chemical and physical hazards, preventive control of hazards that can impact food during food load, unload and transportation operations; prevention versus corrective action, misuse of disinfectants and sanitizers, not cleaning bins, trays, pallets and other tools and equipment used in carrier operations, cross contamination, employee personnel hygiene, temperature variation; vehicle, container and trailer traceability and reporting systems, reefer failures, lack of container maintenance, improper or missing container security systems, accidents, recalls
Learning objectives:
• Understand basic bacterial, chemical and physical hazards
• Know what prevention means
• Know how tools and equipment, pallets, trays, bins, gaskets, hoses, load and unload systems, vehicles, containers and trailers can contaminate foods
• Understand the impact of temperature variation on food safety and food quality
• Know what conditions occur in transportation operations that may cause bacterial growth
• Be able to prevent cross contamination
• Know what missing records can mean
• Know what action to take if a reefer fails or a container is out of acceptable maintenance condition
• Understand accident protocols
• Be able to participate in recalls

Course 3: Basic Sanitary Transportation Practices to Address Food Transportation Sanitation Problems

Course includes contracts of carriage and agreements; system assessment strategy; flowcharting your operations, establishing critical parameters and measurement; standards for management, validation of preventive controls, sanitation, temperature monitoring and container (vehicles, trailers and shipping containers), traceability and training; procedures, record keeping and retention; audit and certification, training, wash, ATP and bacteria testing, inspection and re-inspection requirements, calibration, MSDS, statistical analysis and records retention.
Learning objectives:
• Develop a contract of carriage and other agreements required between carriers and shippers
• Understand basic management, preventive control, sanitation, temperature monitoring and traceability and training standards
• Help to write and implement appropriate container procedures (truck, trailer, sanitation, testing, container traceability and temperature monitoring)
• Learn to keep appropriate records
• Understand the transportation food safety audit and certification process
• Help to establish preventive controls
• Understand how to collect, analyze and take preventive action using statistical data

Who must attend all three courses?
• All carrier transportation operations employees of foods not completely enclosed by a container engaged in food transportation operations whether or not the food is being offered for or enters interstate commerce
• Interstate, intrastate and import carrier personnel
• Business owners
• Compliance Professionals
• Manages
• Buyers
• Supervisors
• Internal food safety audit team members
• Load and Unload Personnel
• Maintenance Personnel 
• Food Safety Employees
• New business development, sales and marketing specialists
• Inspectors
• Trainers

Join this session by expert speaker Dr. John M. Ryan and the Sanitary Cold Chain to get the information and knowledge to comply with FSMA sanitary food transportation law, fulfill carrier training requirements and upgrade your food transportation system. Get armed with the knowledge needed to build a basic plan and learn the difference between preventive and corrective actions.

Presenter—Dr. John Ryan
Dr. John Ryan holds a Ph.D. in research and statistical methods. He has recently retired from his position as the administrator for the Hawaii State Department of Agriculture's Quality Assurance Division where he headed up Hawaii’s commodity inspection, food safety certification and measurement standards service groups. He has won awards for technology for his visionary and pioneering work. He is the president of the Sanitary Cold Chain (website at http://www.SanitaryColdChain.com). The Sanitary Cold Chain provides food safety assessment, training, audit and certification services to shippers, carriers and receivers impacted by the new law. His latest book “Guide to Food Safety during Transportation: Controls, Standards and Practices” was published in 2014. He has spent over 25 years implementing high technology quality control systems for international corporations in Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and the United States.