food safety technology solutions spanning the supply chain

Food Safety Technology Solutions Spanning the Supply ChainA guide for transportation companies to comply with regulations and improve processes

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1 | Food Safety Technology Solutions Spanning the Supply Chain

PART I: INTRODUCTION

Food Contamination: A Threat to the Supply ChainChipotle. Dole. Safeway. These companies have made headlines recently for the same reason: contaminated food1. From lawsuits, fines, negative publicity and shrinking sales, these brands are discovering that rebuilding the public’s trust is no easy task — and it can take months, or even years, for the memory of a foodborne illness outbreak to disappear.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year nearly 48 million people will contract a foodborne illness. Of those, 128,000 will be hospitalized and 3,000 will die. The causes of foodborne illnesses are plentiful and impact the entire food supply chain. Common causes include:

• Consuming contaminated foods or beverages resulting from improper handling techniques;

• Coming into contact with other foods; or • Not moving foods in and out of warehouses fast enough.

1 Why Our Food Keeps Making Us Sick, Fortune, May 2016.


What’s even more concerning is these illnesses are largely preventable by using the proper precautions – and the right technology.

In January 2011, in an effort to help prevent foodborne illness, which could lead to a significant public health issue, the U.S. Congress signed into law the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The aim of FSMA is to prevent food safety problems rather than reacting to problems after they occur. This mandate requires comprehensive, science-based preventative controls across the food supply chain — from growers to distributors to suppliers to carriers.

More recently, the FSMA has been amended to include the Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food (STF) rule. For those organizations that transport food, it is important to note that the STF rule has upcoming deadlines for compliance.

In this e-book, “Food Safety Technology Solutions Spanning the Supply Chain,” you’ll learn how one company is creating end-to-end technology solutions — from tracking products at the source to monitoring transportation and distribution at each step of the supply chain — to help organizations be FSMA/STF-compliant. When implementing these technology solutions the result is increased safety, better efficiency, and cost savings to distributors, suppliers and carriers all while maintaining FSMA/STF compliance.

48 MILLIONPeople will contract a foodborne illness every year.

Of those, 128,000people will be hospitalized

and 3,000 people will die.


PART II: REGULATIONS OVERVIEW

Understanding the Food Safety Modernization ActOur food often travels further than we do, arriving from farms and facilities across town or even from around the world on trains, ships and trucks. At the same time, common foodborne pathogens, such as Salmonella, E. coli or Listeria, are changing, adapting and sometimes becoming stronger and harder to defeat.

The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 updated our food safety system in the U.S., with the goal of preventing problems before they occur. It is comprised of seven separate rules, each with its own area of focus and implementation date, but each rule is mainly focused on the handling, manufacturing and processing of food in the following areas:

• Preventive controls• Inspection and compliance• Imported food safety

• Response time• Enhanced partnerships

7 FS

MA

Rule

s

1Sanitary

Transportation of Human & Animal Food

4Accreditation of Third Party

Auditors

6ProduceSafety

5Intentional

Adulteration

2Hazard Analysis &

Preventive Controls for Human Food

3Foreign Supplier Verification

7Hazard Analysis &

Preventive Controls for Animal Food


The most recent rule is the Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food (STF), which was proposed on February 2014 and finalized in March 2016, is meant to help ensure that transportation practices do not create food safety risks. The rule builds on safeguards envisioned in the 2005 Sanitary Food Transportation Act that was put in place after it was determined that outbreaks of foodborne illnesses in human and animal food – dating as far back as the early 1990s – were the result of contamination during transportation.

What you need to know about STF: With some exceptions, the STF rule sets requirements for shippers, loaders, receivers and carriers who transport food in the U.S. by motor or rail vehicle, or those that ship to the U.S. from Canada or Mexico.

ShippersMust inform their carriers about the necessary safe handling requirements for the transported products, including temperature control parameters. Additionally, they will need to engage in some verification activities with distributors before shipment can commence.

CarriersMust supply vehicles that meet the shipper’s specific requirements; document temperature control compliance; implement procedures to govern STF activities within its fleets; and design, implement and document that employees are trained on new requirements.

Receivers Are subject to requirements intended to maintain the sanitary condition of the food upon delivery, such as maintaining proper temperature and storage. S

TF R

equi

rem

ents

http://www.fda.gov/food/guidanceregulation/fsma/ucm383763.htm#exemptions


The STF also establishes requirements for shippers, carriers and receivers that will involve:

Vehicles and transportation equipment: The design and maintenance of vehicles and transportation must not cause food being transported to become unsafe. Equipment must be suitable and adequately cleanable, and capable of maintaining safe temperatures.

Transportation operations: Must ensure food safety, such as maintaining adequate temperature controls; preventing contamination of ready-to-eat food from touching raw food; protecting from contamination by non-food items in the same load or previous load; and protecting from cross-contact (food allergens).

Training: Carrier personnel must be trained in sanitary transportation practices and must be documented, upon request by the shipper.

Records: Maintain records of written procedures, agreements and training for up to 12 months.

While the FDA has recognized that the transportation sector does not create a considerable risk to food safety, these rules help further alleviate risks by requiring companies to have documentation processes in place.

Implementing new technology – some that even goes beyond documenting processes – can help distributors, suppliers and carriers not only meet, but exceed, the FSMA/STF requirements and ensure food safety best practices – all while improving return on investment.

STF rules apply to all fleets in the United States. Waivers to the rule will be made for: 1. Grade A milk carriers2. Restaurants, supermarkets and

home grocery delivery operations

Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food Compliance Deadlines• Mid-large Businesses: April 6, 2017• Small Businesses (< 500 people,

<$27.5 million): April 6, 2018


ELDs: A Useful Tool Throughout the Supply ChainWhen exploring technology to aid in the safe transport of food, it is important to keep in mind other federal requirements that impact the transportation industry as a whole. For many years, drivers have been using paper logbooks to record their compliance with Hours of Service (HOS) requirements. However, this process is incredibly time consuming: Each year 4.2 million drivers spend 110 hours completing paper logbooks2. Electronic Logging Devices (ELDs) improve this process by automatically recording HOS on an in-cab device, which is connected to the truck’s engine. Although not a direct rule of FSMA, the December 2015 Electronic Logging Devices mandate will impact drivers that transport food.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) rule mandates the use of ELDs to electronically record a driver’s Record of Duty Status (RODS), which includes HOS, as opposed to recording hours manually with paper logbooks. This mandate aims to provide a technology solution that will help reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities in the transportation industry. In addition to the safety components resulting from implementing ELDs, they have a number of benefits, including saving drivers an estimated 20-40 minutes per day, adding up to 50 hours of productivity per year. Moreover, requiring the adoption of fleet management technology will create an opportunity for data sharing across the supply chain. Fleets will be able to share relevant real-time load data with shippers, loaders, receivers and carriers that will be useful for compliance with FSMA/STF.

• Improve work-life balance

• Monitor vehicle health and performance

• Improve safety and efficiency

• Earn a driver more money

• Keep dispatchers up-to-date on a driver's status

• Accurately track detention time

• Provide real-time access to information from the back office

• Save drivers time by reducing paperwork

• Reduce and eliminate HOS violations

• Store vehicle inspection reports and other important data

ELD Driver Benefits

ELD Compliance Deadlines for Carriers and Drivers

• Using Paper Logs: ELDs must be installed by December 2017

• Already Equipped with AOBRDs: ELDs must be adopted by December 2019

2 Tear Up the Paper, iFOCUS Electronic Onboard Recorders, iTECH, December 2004/January 2005.


PART III: TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW

The Integrated Solution From Trimble Transportation & Logistics

Whether you are a shipper, carrier or receiver, you all have a shared goal: moving products safely and efficiently through the supply chain. And that goal holds true for technology providers like Trimble as well. Trimble Transportation & Logistics provides integrated onboard computing and mobile communications systems through subsidiary companies such as HarvestMark®, TMW and PeopleNet. These companies have technology solutions that help companies achieve their goal of safety— at each step of the supply chain.

How do fleets prepare for compliance with the looming FSMA/STF rules? Through Trimble’s suite of offerings, a company can pair solutions together to meet the specific needs of their role within the supply chain. For example, existing Trimble customers can easily build upon the technology solutions they currently have; while new customers have the greatest flexibility by starting with the PeopleNet technology platforms and building on HarvestMark® and TMW solutions. Following is information on how these solutions help meet the FSMA/STF rules.


Traceability: Trimble HarvestMark® HarvestMark offers unique platforms with a variety of products built specifically to provide real-time information about where food has been, its quality and freshness. In short, HarvestMark helps companies remain compliant by providing the tools to monitor and report on the quality of their products.

Through HarvestMark’s system of secure, encrypted serial numbers and QR codes, companies can track products at each step of the supply chain — from the port to the distribution center to consumers' homes. Cloud-hosted data provides information about the time and temperature of the products on the truck, exact delivery time, shelf life and freshness, among others.

HarvestMark for Items is the only traceability solution on the market that links the first and last mile of the supply chain. This product allows companies to put product codes on their foods to extend food safety communication to consumers, and through mobile or website applications, capture feedback from shoppers to help build loyalty.

HarvestMark PTI, or the Product Traceability Initiative (PTI), is an easy-to-use software that allows companies to deploy a variety of tools into its packing systems, such as the ability to print traceability labels on-demand, store secure data and sync the information with lists and label templates, among others.

Trac

eabi

lity

Tool

sTraceability is crucial to the entirety of the food supply chain and essential in ensuring food safety and accountability, not only for suppliers but also for consumers seeking additional information about their food.


HarvestMark Insights allows companies to monitor how products perform from the field to the store shelf, and pinpoint, for example, lost days of freshness and quality all the way back to the harvest. By integrating data across the supply chain it can help transform data into actionable insights.

HarvestMark DC Insights is a cloud-based solution, with both Android and iOS front-end apps, to collect data and help automate receiving quality inspection practices at distribution centers; standardize them across multiple locations; improve record-keeping and supplier benchmarking; and provide better feedback to suppliers.

HarvestMark Supplier Insights extends DC Insights’ capabilities to suppliers to help reduce costly rejections by allowing suppliers to perform quality inspections according to customers’ specifications prior to shipping. They are also able to share that information with buyers for better visibility of product quality and availability.

HarvestMark Retail Insights helps retailers monitor and manage products at retail stores by identifying quality and operational issues.

HarvestMark Consumer Connect allows consumers to trace products, and also provides a platform for vendors to communicate product- related information and collect consumer feedback. This better informs supply chain management, product marketing and quality operations.

72%

OF SHOPPERSchoose their retail store based on the quality of

the produce.

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Qua

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ools


Efficient Route Planning and Maintenance: TMW Systems Appian Final Mile OptimizationManual route planning is time-consuming, paper-intensive, stressful and error-prone. And in the foodservice industry in particular, more efficient routing and scheduling for multi-stop, multi-order fleet operations is imperative. An automated management system can bring efficiency to a potentially chaotic situation.

TMW’s Appian DirectRoute final-mile optimization software is just that — a management tool that helps companies lower transportation costs, control field operations and improve customer service through more efficient route planning and management. Appian DirectRoute aims to ensure carriers are meeting all of the FSMA/STF rules and doing it in a way that saves time and money. Features of Appian’s software include:

• Route optimization to reduce costs and lower the number of miles traveled• Recommendations to reduce the number of trucks required, time it takes to route customers

and overall transportation costs• Improved control over field operations• Real-time vehicle tracking with customizable reporting and financial analysis of

fleet operations

Asset Maintenance System The Asset Maintenance System (AMS) solution from TMW specializes in tracking maintenance applications for mechanics. It helps automate product maintenance and service scheduling to be in sync with dispatch to minimize out-of-route miles and service downtime, while protecting safety compliance and inspection records. AMS can also be utilized as a trailer cleanout application for compliance with FSMA/STF sanitization rules.

Transportation Management System The Transportation Management System (TMS) from TMW gives companies complete visibility into fleet costs and resources. It allows for automating routine processes and alerts fleets to potential situations before they become problems. The software offers shipment planning and execution, carrier dispatch and fleet management applications and is particularly useful for documenting information about previous loads.

Appian customers experience 8-15% reductions in total distribution costs.


Improved Visibility and Connectivity: PeopleNet ConnectedFleet™Part of ensuring safety in the foodservice industry and complying with FSMA/STF rules and the ELD mandate, is being able to have visibility of your fleet and its drivers throughout transportation. The ConnectedFleet platform from PeopleNet provides that visibility —connecting people, equipment and devices by converting data into actionable information with real-time speed. In addition, it can easily integrate with temperature recording or other technology from third-party vendors to fully comply with the FSMA/STF rules.

Mobile GatewayPeopleNet’s Mobile Gateway™ is an intelligent vehicle-bridging unit that serves as a wireless hub to provide connectivity to a variety of devices such as in-cab displays, mobile devices and wearables. Users can access vehicle or third party data such as: weather, traffic patterns, dispatch events, route connections and video for streaming.

ConnectedTabletThe PeopleNet ConnectedTablet™ operates within the typical in-cab environment and outside the cab as a ruggedized mobile computer. It connects to the PeopleNet Mobile Gateway via Wi-Fi to run applications, including: ELDs, Vehicle Management, Onboard Event Recording and In-Cab Navigation, among others.


PeopleNet’s ConnectedFleet platform also has the ability to integrate direct-store-delivery (DSD) functions to gather food transport-specific analytics so drivers and fleet managers can monitor delivery progress in relation to customer commitments and shipper information. In turn, it will enable greater levels of safety, compliance, cost reduction and customer service.

ConnectedDriver Mobile Application Drivers using the PeopleNet ConnectedDriver™ Mobile Application — on either Android or iOS — can receive important updates, view messages from the back office and view their HOS totals on their personal mobile devices at any time and anywhere.

Managed Mobility SolutionsPeopleNet offers a multi-platform enterprise Mobility Management Solution for fleets that support a Company-Owned, Personally Enabled (COPE) communications device strategy. Fleets can: subscribe to specific data based on their needs and receive it as published; easily manage both business and personal applications running on the device; remotely assist drivers during support cases and troubleshooting; and enhance the user experience through customizable home-screens.


Alerting and Recordkeeping With Trimble SolutionsThe real crux of the FSMA/STF rules is the proven process with which a company meets the requirements. Companies must be able to document their procedures and inform the proper parties when something is out of compliance. The combination of the above Trimble products help companies do just this – offering both alerting systems to inform you in real-time when action needs to be taken, as well as recordkeeping to show your process, how it is adhered to and how often it is deviated from.

FSMA/STF Rules The following chart outlines all of the FSMA/STF rules as well as a delineation of Trimble Solutions that can aid in compliance.

TEMPERATURE

PLANNING

ALERTS

RECORDS

REPORTING

SANITIZATION

PREVIOUS LOADTRAINING/

CERTIFICATION

TRACK/TRACE

ROUTE

COMPLIANCE

PeopleNet TMW AMS TMW TMS TMW APPIAN HarvestMark Partner


PART IV: THE SUPPLY CHAIN JOURNEY

Providing Safe, Compliant Transportation From Farm to Fork

What follows is a look at the supply chain journey, and where each Trimble product fits in with the regulations.

HarvestMarkTracking product

information

PeopleNetMonitoring and

reporting

TMW AMSTracking maintenance

& sanitization

TMW TMSDocumentation of

previous loads

TMW APPIANPlanning and

routing

Production

Processing Plant

DistributionCenter

RegionalDC

Retailer Retailer Retailer Retailer Retailer

RegionalDC

ManufacturingPlant

PackagingPlant


PART V: THE BOTTOM LINE

Benefits of an Integrated Solution

Customers expect — and trust — that the food they buy and consume is safe to eat. Making that a reality involves the entire foodservice industry working together in collaboration. And because the transportation industry is a critical link in the supply chain, fleets are looking for the means to demonstrate accountability and reliability. Fortunately, technology can offer tools for traceability, efficient route planning, and visibility and connectivity to fleets — which are all important elements in supporting their goal of bringing safe food to consumers’ tables.

Trimble HarvestMark, the TMW Suite and PeopleNet ConnectedFleet offer a complete technology solution that gives companies the assurance that they are in full compliance with FSMA/STF rules and are operating at the highest level of efficiency.

Along with this integrated solution, Trimble also offers a partnership that includes access to many expert entities, such as the Agricultural and Food Board of the ATA and IFDA, to assist in improving your food transit safety procedures. Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions or to start a discussion about how you can keep your customers — and employees — safe all the way from the farm to the table.

About Trimble Transportation & Logistics Helping the world's on-land commercial vehicle industry achieve greater overall fleet performance. We provide innovative and integrated onboard computing and mobile communications systems that enable managers to get data-driven business intelligence at their fingertips. To make better decisions that lead to greater overall profitability. For more information, please visit www.trimble.com/transportation-logistics.

About PeopleNetPeopleNet provides solutions to help fleets improve safety and compliance and reduce costs. PeopleNet’s network communications, mobility and analytics products are used by more than 2,000 truckload, LTL, private, and energy services fleets throughout North America. PeopleNet was established in 1994 and is headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, with an office in Ontario, Canada. PeopleNet is a Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) Company and part of its international Transportation and Logistics Division. To learn more about PeopleNet and its products, visit www.peoplenetonline.com or call (888) 346-3486.

About TMW SystemsTMW is a leading transportation software provider to commercial and private fleets, brokerage and 3PL organizations. Founded in 1983, TMW has focused on providing enterprise software to the transportation industry, including asset-based and non-asset-based operations as well as heavy-duty vehicle service centers. The company serves over 2,000 customers, including many of the largest, most sophisticated and complex transportation service companies in North America. TMW is a Trimble Company (NASDAQ: TRMB) and part of the international Transportation and Logistics Division. www.tmwsystems.com.

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food safety technology solutions spanning the supply chain

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