It's a big industry but it's a small industry.
Reputation is everything.
Wouldn't want to be in the news for the wrong reasons, due to an outbreak.
Lionel: Okay, well, welcome back, folks.
My name is Lionel Johnston with Bison Transport, and I'm sitting here with Blair, who will
introduce himself in just one moment here.
But we're going to be sitting down to talk today about the Food Safety Modernization
Act and really look at it from a shipper's perspective.
What is important to know, where is the act at, and how can that impact an individual
shipper, and where does a carrier like Bison come into play?
So Blair, if we could just have you introduce yourself.
Say, you know, who you are and what you do at Bison.
Blair: Thanks, Lionel.
My name is Blair Scott.
I'm the Director of Refrigerated Operations here at Bison.
Lionel: Okay, great.
Well, thank you very much for spending some time with us this afternoon here.
So, we're gonna talk about the Food Safety Modernization Act, and I've got a quote here
that calls it "one of the most sweeping reforms to food safety laws in more than 70 years."
It was signed into law by President Obama back, actually, in 2011, and it aims to ensure
that the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination
to preventing it, actually.
So, if we just look at this act in layman's terms, Blair, how would you actually describe
it?
So for a shipper that may be new to this, what do they need to know, and what is this
act all about?
Blair: Yeah, so, the biggest goal of the act is to, you know, take a reactive measure out
of the food chain, for instance, a food-borne illness and then, you know, tracing it back
to the source to put controls in front of that to prevent food-borne illness or other
contaminant from entering the food chain.
From a shipper's standpoint, they need to make sure the production facility is sanitized.
They also need to ensure the supply chain is sanitized all the way through to the final
destination, so that includes the loading, the transportation, and even on the receiving
end.
Lionel: Okay.
So, be clear then, all of the people that are touching the product along the supply
chain, ultimately it's the shipper's responsibility to make sure that all of their suppliers are
ensuring, you know, I guess, proper custody of the product?
I'm not sure how you'd phrase that.
Blair: Yeah, it all boils back to the shipper.
The shipper is responsible to hold others accountable to it.
The FDA, in fact, is moving from a regulatory body to an enforcement body, so they can levy
fines.
They can do plant shutdowns.
And, you know, ultimately, the shipper will be the first one they look at when something
happens.
Lionel: Okay, very interesting.
So, you know, we spoke briefly at the beginning of this that the law came about, you know,
a number of years ago.
Is it fully in effect right now, or is it being transitioned in?
You know, what is the status currently?
Blair: Yeah, so there's different levels of implementation of the law.
We're in a, I guess, period of forgiveness right now or trial and error, if you will,
and it's being applied based on company size.
So certainly, the largest producers would be the first, medium-size producers second
and then your smaller producers following that.
They're also revising different groups that would be exempt from the act due to other
regulations.
I know some produce shippers or produce haulers are exempt, due to current FDA rules.
Lionel: Okay.
So there's some other act or regulations, legislation enforced that are impacting
their business?
Blair: Yes, yeah.
Lionel: Okay.
So, how does this act impact Canadian shippers or producers?
Is it only impacting the U.S. producers, or how does that work?
Blair: If you wanna do business in the U.S., meaning if your products are ultimately gonna
be consumed in the U.S., whether you're from an importer such as Canada or anywhere else,
you need to follow the guidelines.
You know, if you're going in transit into Mexico or something, that act itself won't
apply, but anything that is gonna be consumed or used in the U.S. is required to be part
of this act.
Lionel: Okay, so this topic is very important for all of the Canadian producers and shippers
as well if they are looking down to the United States.
Blair: Yeah, absolutely.
And, you know, this act is good, it's probably long overdue, and the expectation right now
is that Canada will implement a similar act, the Safe Food for Canadians Act, down the
road after this is off and rolling.
Because certainly, a safe food chain is important to everyone.
You look at the health costs, battling something like that, and it's, you know, why not front
load it and prevent it from occurring as opposing to fixing it and trying to prevent it again.
Lionel: Okay, interesting.
Well, you know, I would assume the number one goal, of course, of this is to protect
the supply chain, but I would think in today's world, with the growth of social media and
how connected people are, you know, companies that have infractions or have product recalls
or have challenges, it's probably even more damaging than it would've been in the past.
Because so many people can find out about it so quickly.
You know, have you seen that in your role at all?
Blair: We have.
Unfortunately, you know, it's a big industry, but it's a small industry, and, you know,
reputation is everything.
You know, from safety or performance otherwise, and this is no exception.
You certainly wouldn't wanna be in the news for the wrong reasons, due to an outbreak.
Lionel: So, looking at shippers and understanding that the responsibility is resting on their
shoulders, is it possible, you know, in the year or years ahead where certain shippers
may not be complying with the act, would they have challenge securing capacity from companies
like Bison Transport or other carriers?
Blair: Yeah, I believe so.
You know, if a shipper is not putting the investment in their people or resources to,
you know, become compliant with changing acts, you know, likely the carriers they
choose and some of the other supply chain decisions they made might not be to that as
well.
Lionel: Okay.
Blair: I expect that, you know, carriers that are either compliant or become compliant with
the shipper's requirements will certainly have the upper hand in the early years as
this act's in place.
Lionel: Okay.
What do you see in terms of shippers, in general?
Are most shippers very familiar with this act and actively, you know, making changes?
Or would you say most are less familiar with what is required of them and really aren't
sure what the path is moving forward?
Blair: Yeah.
So, a lot of shippers would be familiar with HACCP rules.
It's typically the standard around food safety.
Now, the FSMA is a little bit different in the fact that it takes a lot of components
of HACCP, but it also, you know, puts preventive control rules in place and such things as
that.
You know, your larger shippers that rely heavily on the U.S. market may not be completely up-to-speed
on it now, but they've certainly heard it, and I'm sure the wheels are in motion.
Lionel: Sort of working on it.
Blair: On the other hand, you know, there's a lot of shippers that are likely waiting
to see how it pans out and how it's gonna affect them and probably a few steps behind
the progress where they should be.
Lionel: I see, okay.
Where does Bison fit in all of this, and how can a carrier like Bison help out with this
situation with shippers?
Blair: Understanding the scope of the need and, you know, the amount of cross-border
business we do today, we've taken it upon ourselves to develop a Bison-type plan that,
you know, takes our already solid controls and just shifts it geared more towards the
Food Safety Act.
And what we can do, then is if we encounter a shipper who, you know, may not be quite
compliant with the act by creating their own plan or may have some unanswered questions,
what we can offer them is our solution that they can either, you know, incorporate or
else use it as a guideline to develop their own.
Lionel: Okay, so we'd be able to roll in and help them out in whatever capacity may be
needed there?
Blair: Yeah.
The biggest thing, like I said, you know, even in the case of Bison, where we have a
lot of great processes in place, the Food Safety Act has been referred to as the "Documentation
Act" as well.
Because it's, you know, not only having the great controls in place, but having the process
documented and having the ability to prove it when necessary.
Lionel: Okay.
Oh, that's great to know about.
And so looking at a shipper then, from their perspective, if they are working with a carrier
like Bison or other carriers across Canada and the U.S., are there certain questions
that the shipper should ask of the carrier to make sure that the carrier can fulfill
their needs and make sure that they stay compliant with this act?
Blair: Yeah.
There's a few specific ones that come to mind.
First and foremost is the ability to prove temperature.
The act requires that you retain temperature records up to one year following the delivery,
so, you know, certainly a telematics solution, where you're capturing that real-time data,
is key.
It's part of our standard procedure, so that's certainly something they're gonna wanna look
for.
Secondly, there's a large focus on trailer sanitation.
You know, you can do everything right.
However, if you, you know, load something on a contaminated trailer, it could cause
a lot of problems.
So, you know, having a specific wash program, including the proof of wash, the
materials used in the wash and, again, a documented process surrounding that.
And third is just, you know, trailer vintage.
The shipper can dictate the type of equipment, you know, spec and all, to what their products
can move on.
You know, fortunately, our fleet is very modern.
I know 80% of our fleet is 2015 and newer.
We take food safety in mind when we spec our equipment, so we're using the proper materials
already, procedures with pre-cooling, certainly the temp integrity throughout the load, and
the sanitation.
So those factors are gonna be probably at the top of the list when a shipper is looking
for a reliable carrier to get their product to the destination.
The solution to a dirty trailer, back in the day, is give it an acid wash.
Well, an acid wash, in fact, corrodes the floor, which creates pockets for bacteria
to grow in, so the act insists that, you can't beat warm water and soap to keep
the integrity of your equipment.
So, yeah, it could be shiny and smell really nice, but, in fact, it could be full of bacteria
that could affect the food chain.
Lionel: Oh, interesting, okay.
You had mentioned the term telematics.
So what can you, you know, tell us about how that operates at Bison?
What are we actually able to see here?
Blair: Yeah, so our telematics program enables us to have real-time temperature monitoring
of the load.
The value in that is if the temperature changes while we're rolling down the road, our monitoring
team would pick up on that and be able to begin to troubleshoot the issue.
Whether it's an alarm that requires maintenance.
Maybe it just requires a temperature adjustment due to inclement weather, but we have the
ability to watch these and react real time.
We also have the ability to provide the customer proof of temperature when required, either
by downloading the physical unit or, in absence of that, we can pull a report through our
telematics solution.
Lionel: It seems like a company or a carrier, that if they aren't investing in technology
and processes and their equipment, dealing with food producers is really going to be
a non-issue in the next couple of years to come.
They just won't be set up to handle that type of business.
Is that correct?
Blair: Yeah.
They're either going to shrink their available market or be forced by hand to invest in new
equipment purchases, you know.
And with the, you know, current exchange, buying a brand new fleet due to a change in
regulations may be too much for some carriers, where they'll choose to either run domestic
or shift their market to handle protective service, but on non-food-related
materials.
Lionel: Okay, great.
Well, just to wrap things up then, Blair, you know, this is quite a complicated topic,
and there's lot of ins and outs to the act.
Again, from a shipper's perspective, if there's one thing that they should take away or one
thing that they should know, what do you think is the most important thing for them to either
ask about or be concerned about or know more about, based on this act?
Blair: The best thing I can suggest is, you know, talk to your carrier.
Understand their capabilities to make sure they understand the shipper's program.
Choose your carriers wisely.
You can do everything right from the manufacturing perspective, only to have the whole process
go to waste from point A to point B because the carrier partnered with is not
compliant and not following the same standard.
Lionel: Okay, great.
Well, thank you very much.
Well, I really appreciate your time this afternoon.
It was quite interesting and enlightening to learn more about this area of the business
here.
And for everyone watching at home or wherever you may happen to be here, if you do have
any questions that you would like for us to be able to address, please just put them in
the comments below.
Otherwise, please feel free to go to bisontransport.com to be able to find out more about what Bison Transport
can do for your company.
But thank you very much for tuning in today, and thank you again, Blair, for your time
this afternoon.
Blair: Thanks, Lionel.
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