FOOD TRANSPORTATION

The issue of food transportation in our world is a major one. Each year 200 billion metric tons of food are transported globally, 35% percent by land, 60% by sea, and 5% by air. This leads to significant vulnerability of the food in possible contamination. Especially when it comes to shipping items that need proper refrigeration and temperature control. 

The International Association for Food Protection is a non-profit association that provides members with information on scientific, technical and practical developments in food safety and sanitation. They wrote this in-depth manuscript “Food Transportation Safety: Characterizing Risks and Controls by Use of Expert Opinion” highlighting many of the current issues with shipping food internationally. An interesting read on a subject that may not be getting as much scrutiny and attention as it needs. They end the assessment by saying:

“This study serves only as a preliminary assessment of current food transportation and holding practices for food commodities. Both the lack of literature on the subject and the broad nature of the expert elicitation suggest a need for further study regarding food safety hazards involved in food transportation. In particular, the food transportation industry may benefit from a baseline quantitative assessment of both the frequency and severity of food safety hazards and the degree of implementation for various safe food transportation practices and preventive controls.”