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A headline on a press release I read earlier this year read, “FDA Hears Dirty Truth on Transportation of Fresh Produce.”  It was referring to testimony by a trucking organization at a hearing by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration relating to unsanitary conditions for fresh produce in the supply chain.

Mike Jantschke has worked in the food safety area for 20 years in various industries ranging from poultry to meat, seafood, packaged, canned, dry products and now primarily with produce.

Last March the television news show Dateline NBC featured the poor sanitary conditions on the Seventh Street Produce Market in Los Angeles. I have personally been on that “market” as recently as 2004 and again in 2006 and it was a pretty disgusting place.  The Los Angeles Produce Market is only a few miles away, and is relatively sanitary.  The Seventh Street Market was mostly without refrigerated warehousing.  It was primarily street vendors operating out of the back of pick up trucks.  Much of the produce there was fruit and veggies that had been rejected by retail chains, or wholesalers on the LA produce market.  As a result, the Seventh Street vendors would buy the rejected produce for practically nothing.  They would haul it over to Seventh Street, and cull through it hand by hand, discarding a high percentage of it right onto the street.  There were flies and rats on the market, not mention to birds and their droppings.

I haven’t been back to the Seventh Street Market since I heard the city forced vendors to clean up their act, but it has to be better now than it was.

It wasn’t as unsanitary on the old South Water Market in Chicago, but that wasn’t a pretty sight either. I often talked with produce haulers waiting outside the market until they could get positioned on the market for unloading.  At least South Water had refrigerated warehousing, albeit very outdated.  There also were some of the largest rat traps I’ve ever seen, strategically placed around the market.  Fortunately, with the building of the Chicago International Produce Market about five years ago, the sanitation has been significantly improved.  The site of the old South Water Market has now been converted to upscale condominiums.

As with the Chicago market, I’ve been to the Hunts Point Wholesale Terminal Market in the South Bronx of New York City many times over the years.  Like the old South Water Market, the bathroom facilities at Hunts Point leave a lot to be desired.  The produce industry wants truckers to handle the produce for them, yet too often don’t even provide working showers or restrooms, much less a place to wash your hands.

However, this may be changing. After a handful of deaths and hundreds of reports relating to food borne illnesses across the country last year due to the E.coli in spinach.  It appears the federal government will eventually implement mandatory regulations not only on the produce industry, but the truckers that haul it, as well.  In other words, everyone involved in the food supply distribution chain.

I asked food safety expert Mike Jantschke what produce haulers could do to help avoid contributing to a food borne illness outbreak.  Jantschke is the director of food safety for Pro*Act, LLC, based in Monterey, CA.  The company has over 70 distribution sites across the country.  It works with 43 distribution companies nationwide.  He says the company estimates it will handle about 46 million cases of produce this year.

Jantschke has worked in the food safety area for 20 years in various industries ranging from poultry to meat, seafood, packaged, canned, dry products and now primarily with produce.

Temperature Control.  The food safety expert says even though all fresh fruits and vegetables require temperature control for food safety, a lot of it is focused on quality issues and shelf life rather than food safety.

“Truckers usually don’t have the expertise or the knowledge to effectively deal with a lot of food safety issues,” Jantschke observes.  “But they need to be mindful of keeping the cold chain from the moment they start out to pick up a load until they actually distribute the load to its destination.”

Previous Load.  It is important to verify within the trucking company what was loaded into the trailer on the previous trip before picking up a food item.  While some truckers have designated routes hauling only food products, others do not, he notes. 

“Obviously, if you were hauling toxic chemicals and you put produce on the next load, there are some risks,” Jantschke states.  “Even within the food area, it should be checked what was on the previous load.  If you load produce into a truck, which previously hauled raw chicken or raw beef, etc, there is the possibility some of that could get onto the produce.  There needs to be some type of system in place to have control over that.”

Sanitation Certificate.  Jantschke says it is routine for tanker truck haulers to clean tanks.  It is usually required the transporter provide the shipper with a prior load certificate, as well as a sanitation certificate. This way it is known what was previously hauled in the tanker and that the tanker has since been sanitized.

This is very important in the tanker industry since the food comes in direct contact with the inside of the trailer and potentially, whatever was previously hauled.  However, even with a more regular truck where produce is palletized, Jantschke emphasizes there is still risk.

“Say there is raw chicken, you have to assume that maybe some of the juices from the chicken gets in the interior of the truck.  You may end up with salmonella in the truck.  If there is any contact it can transfer that salmonella to the produce,” Jantschke says.

November Hauling Outlook
Nearly 7 million cartons of grapefruit and oranges should be shipped with the Lower Rio Grand Valley of Texas this season.  Loadings for the fresh market should be above last season.  Good shipments of apples from the largest Eastern producing states are predicted:  New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.  Average loadings of onions are seen from Idaho and Eastern Oregon.