The new The Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food rule enacted by the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act (FSM) is now final. It was published in the Federal Register on April 6, 2016. The rule further advances the FDA's efforts to protect food from farm to table by helping to keep them safe from contamination during transportation.
The rule builds on safeguards envisioned in the 2005 Sanitary Food Transportation Act (SFTA). Illness outbreaks resulting from human and animal food contamination during transportation, as well as incidents and reports of unsanitary transportation practices, have caused concerns about the need for regulations to help ensure that foods are transported safely. Learn more about the Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food rule on the FDA website.
Congress passed the Sanitary Food Transportation Act (SFTA) of 1990 (49 USC 5701) in response to concerns about how food was being transported in trucks that also haul a large variety of products that were consider inconsistent with hauling food products safely.
It is not hard to comprehend that the Federal Highway Administration, the precursor to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, was charged with developing regulations to keep foods safe during transportation and did not have the expertise to do so.
The next big transportation bill was the National Economic Crossroads Transportation Efficiency Act (NEXTEA). It transferred the responsibility to the FDA and required that they develop regulations to ensure that the transportation and storage of food was done in a safe manner no matter what mode of transportation it was taking.
