Van den Bosch welcomes ENFIT

About 20 members of ENFIT, the international association for supply chain safety, recently visited Van den Bosch Transporten. ENFIT collaborates with a number of prominent stakeholders in the food industry to realise a notified European guideline for the standardisation of food safety in the supply chain.

“As a logistic services provider specialised in bulk transport, we value the importance of food safety and want to contribute to this standard”, said Barry Gruijters, Operations Manager Division Dry Bulk at Van den Bosch Transporten. Together with his colleague and Quality Manager Ronald van der Vleuten, he is enthusiastically participating in the European working group ‘Food Safety in the Supply Chain’ that started early this year.

The ENFIT group consists of experts from a.o. the food industry, logistics & transport, cleaning stations, plant builders and certification companies. Together they work on the future guideline. The unique thing about this initiative is that for the first time all processes and risks in the entire supply chain are being analysed, based on loading, transportation, the container, unloading, cleaning & disinfecting, traceability and previous loads.

Around twenty ENFIT members visited Van den Bosch Transporten on September 18 and 19. They gained more insight in the transport processes and the potential risks related to food safety. Barry explained: “The container is the temporary packaging of a product and that involves additional risks. As a specialist in bulk transport, we gained a lot of know-how and experience in terms of product safety. We want to take our responsibility by contributing to the creation of this guideline. It will lead to more transparency and the improvement of food safety in the supply chain.”

Under the leadership of ENFIT president Hans-Dieter Philipowski, the members worked on the future guideline. The working group is divided into the subgroups Hygienic Design, Hygienic Practices in Operations and Cleaning Stations. Also traceability and technology are important topics. Hans-Dieter looked back at the meeting with satisfaction: “The guideline includes many requirements that have to be met by logistic companies. Therefore, it is important to understand the daily activities and challenges of a logistic services provider. It was very interesting to gain a better insight in e.g. the ordering process, the equipment, the loading & unloading and the cleaning processes.”

Hans-Dieter expects to complete the guideline proposal by the end of this year. “With this guideline we want to lay the foundation for food transport in and outside Europe. The advantages are obvious. Thanks to the guideline, the industry will be able to present unambiguous and defined requirements to all logistic services providers. The global traceability system, that is part of the requirements, will lead to more transparency and safety in the supply chain. Moreover, for logistic services providers and cleaning stations quality will be rewarded and acknowledged with this guideline. And last but not least: consumers and retailers will be protected better – definitely a step in the right direction.”

For more information visit: www.enfit.eu

8th October 2018