The rapid growth of the Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics (CEIV Pharma) has led the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to consider a similar certification program for other cold chain items, such as perishable foods, The Loadstar reports.
The challenge of fragmentation among potentially participating countries is at issue, however, since such a program could be costly to implement. Pharmaceutical companies can more easily absorb such costs.
Such a program could significantly reduce waste, which may ultimately bring retailers, shippers, and forwarders on board for such a program.
Establishing a handling standard for perishable foods could create greater traceability within the supply chain, as well as help eliminate waste.
Quality assurance standards vary throughout the world, making traceability for contamination a challenge. The challenge intensifies when suppliers are spread across the globe, all with differing ideas about refrigeration and transport necessities. In the process of tracking down the source of a contaminant, tremendous amounts of food are wasted for fear that they too carry the same parasite or germ. A global standard of handling could erase much of that waste, as an established system of source traceability could be employed to more quickly resolve public health hazards…
