In 1990, Congress passed the Sanitary Food Transportation Act (SFTA) of 1990 and delegated primary authority to implement the law to the Department of Transportation (DOT). With the passage of the 2005 SFTA, Congress reallocated authority for food transportation safety to FDA, DOT, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the FDA now has the lead role among federal agencies in regulating the safety of food during transport. However, both DOT and the USDA have a role as partners with the FDA in the broad federal food safety structure.
With the update of SFTA in 2005, Congress directed the FDA to establish regulations on sanitary transportation practices for food. As part of the implementation of the 2005 SFTA, the FDA has collected information on current best practices in the food transportation industry through an April 2010 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published in Federal Register and a 2009 study commissioned to characterize current baseline practices and to identify current areas where food is at risk. This rule implements the 2005 SFTA as well as the requirement in section 111 of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) that instructed FDA to issue SFTA regulations.
In April 2010, FDA also issued guidance to provide the industry with broadly applicable recommendations for controls to prevent food safety problems during transport. This guidance and other information about regulations and guidance applicable to food transportation are available on FDA’s Sanitation & Transportation Guidance Documents & Regulatory Information page.
