Tuesday, March 24, 2009

How Third Party Logistics Work With Food Industries

By Chris Channing

If you have need to transport food of some sort in the United States, it is likely you are going to have the time of your life working with the Food and Drug Administration. The process may not be as easy as you would like, but in the end, the result is certainly so: ensuring foods are safe for consumption.

If you plan to deal with food of any type, or even dietary supplements, you will have to be registered through the Food and Drug Administration. In doing so, the FDA will be able to find the path in which a food or dietary product took in order to recall it, and find the source of problems that may arise. As such, you and your 3PL company should ensure all business partners are registered before doing business.

The FDA has been known to delay shipments of a business that has a different address than the one on file. There are many legit reasons why a business would have a change of address, but the FDA likes to double check just to be sure- which can lead to delays in shipment. As such, you should check up business addresses with the one on file with the FDA to avoid delays.

All clearance documents you and your logistics company work with should have the FDA product code stamped on it. This will give both you and the FDA information on the goods being imported. This seven character string will tell you several things, such as the class code, product name, group code, or product industry code.

One must also follow the Bio-terrorism Act, more specifically Title III. This act specifies that anyone importing foods into the US must adhere to certain rules. For instance, advance notification must be given to the FDA before a shipment arrives. Logistics companies should also keep substantial records on the food and where it is going to appease the title.

Even with this much discussed, there is a boat-load of information to consider when dealing with food and transportation. As you can see, outsourcing this headache to a third party logistics company is a great idea. Logistics companies will not only handle your burden, but also be responsible should anything go wrong. Third party logistics services will also be able to give you the documentation you need of the process to adhere to current laws.

Closing Comments

The United States is continually pushing out legislation to keep its residents safe from bad food products. This is great for consumers, and necessary, but can make businesses bend over backwards so that they can appease such requests. If you would like to work in the food industry, do be sure of the fact that there will be plenty of laws and regulations to abide by. - 15246