The proposed regulation would establish criteria for sanitary transportation practices, such as properly refrigerating food, adequately cleaning vehicles between loads, and properly protecting food during transportation.
The proposed rule would apply to shippers, carriers, and receivers who transport food that will be consumed or distributed in the United States and is intended to ensure that persons engaged in the transportation of food that is at the greatest risk for contamination during transportation follow appropriate sanitary transportation practices. The requirements in the proposed rule would not apply to the transportation of fully packaged shelf-stable foods, live food animals, and raw agricultural commodities when transported by farms.
The FDA intends to hold three public meetings on the proposed rule for the Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food. To do so, the agency is first planning on extending the public meetings on the proposed rule for the Intentional Adulteration of Food to include coverage of Sanitary Transportation in two locations. These meetings will be held on February 27, 2014 at the Hilton Chicago in Chicago and on March 13, 2014 at the Sheraton Park Hotel in Anaheim, CA. It is anticipated that the Chicago and Anaheim meetings will remain one day meetings but run until approximately 5:00 p.m. The agency also intends to hold a standalone public meeting on the Sanitary Transportation of Human and Animal Food on March 20, 2014, from 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. at the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in College Park, MD. The agency will have final Sanitary Transportation meeting details and registration information published shortly. The proposed rule is available for public comment until May 31, 2014.
Shellfish Causing Confusion
The exemption of live animals from the proposed Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) sanitary transportation rule might need a caveat (hố, sự chia rẽ).
During the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s public meeting on the rule in College Park, MD, on Thursday, Michael Osterling, executive director of the Shellfish Growers of Virginia, pointed out that shellfish are frequently transported and consumed live and raw.
But live animals – along with shelf-stable foods and compressed food gases (e.g., those used to make soft drinks) – are exempted from the regulation because it was determined they are at little risk of becoming adulterated during transportation.
“We believe that many of the illness outbreaks associated with raw shellfish consumption are caused by temperature abuse between harvest and retail that permits naturally occurring bacteria to proliferate within the shellfish,” Osterling said.
So if foods requiring temperature control to maintain their safety are covered by the proposed regulation, but live animals are exempted, where do shellfish fall?
In order to avoid enforcement confusion, Osterling requested that the agency clarify the rule’s language so that shellfish are expressly not exempted.
“We completely didn’t think about that,” responded Don Kraemer, senior advisor to FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). He admitted that the agency had been more focused on “hoofed” animals while crafting the rule.
Staff will now have to think through whether they meant to include shellfish and crustaceans in that exemption or not, he said.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Tilapia is easy to farm and provides high economic and nutritional value, making it a sought-after export commodity in many countries.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Vietnam’s seafood exports in the first 10 months of 2025 recorded significant progress, reaching more than USD 9.5 billion, up 15% year-on-year. This result reflects the sector’s persistent efforts amid a highly volatile market, especially policy shocks from the US Although signs of slowdown emerged in the third quarter due to countervailing taxes, key product groups still maintained strong momentum and created a foundation for full-year exports to reach USD 11 billion.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Vietnam’s agreement with the United States on a framework for reciprocal, fair, and balanced trade—reached during the 2025 ASEAN Summit in Malaysia—has generated strong optimism for Vietnamese exports, including tuna. Numerous positive points in the joint statement have raised high expectations for Vietnamese export goods, but turning these expectations into tangible benefits remains a long and challenging journey.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) At the conference on “Linking the Production and Consumption Chain of Ca Mau Crab 2025,” Vice Chairman of the Ca Mau Provincial People’s Committee Lê Văn Sử posed a central question: how to shift the province’s crab exports toward official trade channels, instead of relying heavily on small-scale border trade with China as currently practiced.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) The whitefish market in Japan is showing a clear divergence among supplying countries, in which Vietnam continues to affirm its role as a stable and high-potential exporter. Vietnam currently ranks third after the US and Russia in whitefish export value to Japan. Thanks to tariff incentives and the ability to meet Japan’s strict standards, Vietnamese pangasius continues to record a stable and positive growth trend.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) The People's Committee of Ca Mau Province has just issued a plan to expand the super-intensive, low-water-exchange, biosecure white-leg shrimp farming model (RAS-IMTA) for whiteleg shrimp farming to a scale of 1,500 hectares, aiming to develop high-tech, sustainable and environmentally friendly shrimp farming.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Sa Giang Import-Export Joint Stock Company (HNX: SGC) plans to issue over 7.1 million shares to raise nearly 465 Billion VND for Hoan Ngoc M&A Deal.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) According to Rabobank, global tilapia production is forecast to exceed 7 million tons in 2025, driven by a strong recovery in major producing countries including China, Indonesia, Egypt, Bangladesh and Vietnam. Among them, Vietnam is emerging as a potential tilapia supplier in the global supply chain, capitalizing on market fluctuations to expand production and exports.
By the end of Q3/2025, Vietnam’s seafood industry recorded a clear recovery as a series of leading companies reported strong profits — some even achieving the highest results in their history. After several quarters struggling with high costs and weakened demand, the latest business results indicate a robust comeback across the industry.
(seafood.vasep.com.vn) On November 12 in Ho Chi Minh City, the Embassy of the Netherlands, in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, organized the Vietnam–Netherlands Business Forum under the theme “Shaping the future of sustainable aquaculture in the Mekong Delta.”
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