25.1 Introduction
The hygiene aspect of food transport has become an issue for European transport
operators. This development started roughly in 1990, when national
governments urged transport operators to act on food safety. However,
nowadays retailers and food producers are demanding more hygiene measures
from transport operators. Transport operators need to fulfil an increasing number
of hygiene schemes to be allowed to participate in transport tenders of the large
retailers and food producers.
In every food supply chain there are at least a few but usually dozens of
transport steps. These transport steps can differ greatly in duration, conditioning
and type of food product. Consequently, all these transports will have their own
food safety profile. Since the majority of food transports have a short duration
(1±4 hours) in comparison with the duration of the complete supply chain (at
least 3±7 days for fresh foods) the hygiene risks are usually limited in
comparison to the risks associated with the longer supply chain steps (food
production, retail and storage at the consumer). Obviously, there are also several
transports in food supply chains that are more delicate, such as live animals,
hung carcasses, etc.
25.2 Legislation
The most relevant European legislation on transport and hygiene is summarised
in Table 25.1. The Food Hygiene Directive demands that foodstuffs should be
25 Improvinghygiene in foodtransportation
E. U. Thoden van Velzen and L. J. S. Lukasse, Wageningen
University and Research Centre, The Netherlands