HACCP, Safe Food Queensland and Your Carrier: What to Ask Before You Book

Before you book a refrigerated carrier, ask for evidence of how they control temperature and hygiene, and check whether your product needs anything more. HACCP certification is not a blanket legal requirement for food transporters in Australia. It is usually something a customer, retailer or contract asks for. What the law does require of every food business is compliance with the Food Standards Code.

That distinction changes the questions worth asking. “Are you HACCP certified?” gets a yes or a no. “Show me the temperature record from a recent delivery” tells you how the truck is actually run.

What HACCP is, in plain English

HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. It is the Codex seven-principle system for finding where food can become unsafe and controlling those points:

1. 1Hazard analysis. List what could go wrong with the food at each step.
2. 2Critical control points. Pick the steps where control is essential.
3. 3Critical limits. Set a measurable limit for each one, such as a maximum temperature.
4. 4Monitoring. Check the limit is being met, and write it down.
5. 5Corrective action. Decide in advance what happens when a limit is missed.
6. 6Verification. Confirm the system works, for example by calibrating thermometers.
7. 7Record keeping. Keep the records so the checks can be shown later.

What that looks like on a truck

Transport has only a handful of points where food safety is won or lost. A carrier working to HACCP principles will typically treat these as its control points:

• Product temperature at pickup, read with a probe before the freight is accepted.
• Vehicle pre-cool, so the load space is at temperature before the doors open.
• Air temperature in the load space during transit.
• Product temperature at delivery, recorded with the time.
• Cleaning and changeover between loads, particularly between sensitive products.

What the law requires of food transport

All food businesses must comply with the Food Standards Code, whatever their licensing. For transport, Standard 3.2.2 says potentially hazardous food must be transported under temperature control, which means 5°C or below for chilled food (or another temperature the business can demonstrate is safe), and food intended to be frozen must remain frozen.

On receipt, chilled potentially hazardous food should arrive at 5°C or below and frozen food is accepted only if frozen hard. Food arriving between 5°C and 60°C can be accepted only if the transporter can demonstrate the time and temperature were safe. A food business handling potentially hazardous food must also have a thermometer accurate to ±1°C. The numbers are covered in detail in our guide to chilled and frozen transport temperatures.

What customers and retailers require by contract

Over the top of the law sits whatever your customers specify. Supply agreements and product specifications commonly ask for a HACCP-based food safety program, tighter temperature limits than the Code, such as frozen never warmer than −18°C from the industry's Australian Cold Chain Guidelines, and particular records. If your customer requires a certified carrier, that requirement comes from them, so ask for it in writing and pass it on when you request a quote.

Safe Food Queensland accreditation

Queensland has a further layer for some products. Safe Food Production Queensland's guidance is that businesses transporting meat, eggs, dairy, seafood or horticulture produce in Queensland may require an accreditation.

Whether one applies depends on the product and the activity, so we will not generalise here. Confirm the position for your product directly with Safe Food Queensland, then ask your carrier for the current certificate if one is needed.

Your own obligations as the product owner

Handing freight to a carrier does not hand over your responsibilities. Your business must still comply with the Food Standards Code, and the Cold Chain Guidelines put the temperature limits for a product in the hands of its manufacturer or owner. That means giving the carrier a set point and a never-warmer-than limit in writing.

If freight is delivered to you, you are the receiver. FSANZ's receiving example is worth copying: ask to see the truck's temperature data logger, probe a sample, and record the time and temperature.

There is also heavy vehicle law. Under Chain of Responsibility, a business that consigns or receives goods by heavy vehicle is a party with a primary duty to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the safety of its transport activities. In practice: do not set delivery deadlines that require speeding or skipped rest, declare weights accurately, and load safely.

Documents to request, and what each one proves

Red flags

• Temperature is described from the cab display only, with no probe reading of the product.
• Records are promised “if there's a problem” but cannot be produced for an ordinary delivery.
• Nobody can say when the probe was last calibrated.
• The carrier is happy to load warm product and “bring it down on the way”. Refrigerated vehicles maintain temperature; they are not designed to chill product.
• Claims of certification or accreditation with no certificate, or one that has expired.
• No clear answer on what was in the vehicle before your load, or how it was cleaned.

What to do next

1. 1Write down your product's set point and never-warmer-than limit, and any carrier requirements in your customers' specifications.
2. 2Check with Safe Food Queensland whether transporting your product requires an accreditation.
3. 3Send the table above to the carriers you are comparing and ask for a recent example of each record.
4. 4Probe and record your own freight at dispatch, so there is a reading from both sides.

Our guide to choosing a refrigerated transport company in Brisbane covers the commercial side of the comparison. To see how we handle a load, read about our refrigerated transport services and how job updates and proof of delivery work, then contact us with your product details.