Concerns for the Safety of Human and Animal Food During Transportation

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Introduction

The issues concerning the safety of human and animal food during transportation to and within the United States are concerns, which are raising the attention of both the American public and the United States Food and Drug Administration. A few of the main worries include, the improper handling of food products, the lack of proper control of the temperature in which the foods are kept, the concerns of cross-contamination, the lack of proper equipment for the loading of food products before they are transported to other area on the country and the lack of security.

In order for these problems to the fixed and restore a proper and healthy means of transporting human and animal foods, there issues needs to be dealt with, which is why ideal regulations of Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Foods was put in place whereby the transportation of foods will be executed under safe and healthy conditions for human and animal consumption. It is estimated that every year, about 200 billion metric tons of human and animal food products are globally transported to the United States with about 35 percent of these foods products transported by land, 60 percent by sea and about 5 percent by air.

Brief Background

The history behind the regulation goes back to the 1980s when trucks that carried food from the Midwest to be delivered to the East and West Coast carried garbage in their turn trips. This lead to the implementation of the Sanitary Food Transportation Act of 1990 to help prevent the carriage of garbage in trucks or any means of transportation intended for food carrying purpose. Recent federal regulations indicate that food products have to be protected from physical, microbial and chemical contamination when h...

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...nt of the carrier programs. Furthermore, the USDA should include an evaluation function into all new established programs. Though it is easy to focus on smaller carriers, USDA should also pay more attention to the resources on to the appropriate branch of the industry. Usually, state level outreaches are the most efficient technics on getting to small carriers. A more efficient program consideration would be to establish an online resource venue that also assists with the provision of security support for registered users.

Conclusion

The implementation of the regulation not only helps in the prevention of the contamination of foods during the transportation process, it also helps prevent numerous foodborne illnesses that could possible cause a high mobility and mortality rate in the United States and not to mention the impact it will have on health care cost.

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