USDA Issues New Guidelines for Meat, Poultry, Egg Hauls

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he Agriculture Department has issued guidelines to protect shipments and distribution of meat, poultry and eggs, about four months after the Food and Drug Administration proposed rules on recordkeeping and detention of food shipments.

Both the USDA guidelines — issued Aug. 4 by the department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service — and the proposed FDA rules would give motor carriers a greater responsibility for protecting food in their possession from terrorist acts and from contamination that could originate as a result of mishandling or through exposure to microbes.

Fletcher Hall, executive director of the Agricultural Transporters Conference, said the USDA guidelines would apply to about 21 million trucks that transport food products every day.

“These guidelines provide more security for the food chain and appear to be reasonable and in keeping with the many existing industry practices,” said Hall in an interview with Transport Topics Aug. 11.

For the full story, see the Aug. 18 edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.

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