Transportation, Logistics and the Law for 3PLs Seminar: Are You Protecting Your Business?
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TIA Minnesota Seminar Report – Part V
Presented by Brent Wm. Primus, J.D.
On April 6, 2016 the Food and Drug Administration published new regulations relating to the sanitary transportation of food. These are sometimes referred to as the FSMA (fez-ma) regulations as they were prompted by the Food Safety Modernization Act.
Brokers are subject to these requirements as are shippers and carriers. A brokers first task is to determine if its customers' products are subject to the regulations. If so, then procedures must be adopted and implemented to comply with the regulations.
Although there are no new criminal or civil penalties included in the new regulations themselves, long existing statutes established under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act make it a criminal act to sell adulterated food. There can be other serious adverse consequences for failure to comply. In particular, a failure to establish and follow procedures required by the regulations can lead to the products being shipped “deemed to be adulterated.”
The possibility of a shipment being adulterated is treated, for legal purposes, the same as if the shipment was in fact adulterated. Accordingly, a broker arranging a shipment of food subject to FSMA, in addition to the usual risk, faces the additional legal risk of failing to comply with the regulations… and also the financial risk of having a shipment be considered to be a total loss in the context of a cargo claim… even if no actual contamination occurred.
The upcoming Minnesota seminar on August 2-3 will include an analysis of the FSMA regulations and also explore the steps that brokers, shippers, and carriers can take to both comply with the legal regulations and to protect themselves from financial risk. Last years attendees reported what they would be doing within the next 30 days as a result of what they learned at the seminar:
“I need to incorporate FSMA addendum into all forms and should also request internal audit on new contracts.”
-- Corporate Attorney, Major Food Producer
“For new food safety rules we will ask all shippers if they ship commodities subject to the new rules and, if so, what are their instructions. We’ll pass these instructions through to carriers via the rate confirmation.”
-- Senior Manager, Quality & Compliance, Broker
If you have any questions regarding this year’s Minnesota seminar, please contact brent@primuslawoffice.com.
Transportation, Logistics and the Law for 3PLs: Identifying and Minimizing Legal Risks in the Supply Chain” Seminar
August 2-3, 2018
Minnetonka, MN
