The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has released food delivery guidelines that come just short of requiring food safety training for food delivery drivers.  A4DD offers an inexpensive 35-minute online training course that covers the material the FDA wants delivery drivers to know.  Click here to check out how drivers can get squared up with FDA standards today.  And see below for what you can do.

So what exactly does the FDA have to say?  “A Direct to Consumer (DTC) delivery company should ensure adequate food safety training and supervision for all personnel handling food”.  The use of the word “should” is interesting.  “Should” is not the same as “must”.  Does that mean that food delivery services, restaurants, and grocers don’t need proof of training from delivery drivers?

Imagine a customer who gets sick from mishandled food.  Maybe the delivery was late or maybe food items were mixed up that shouldn’t be.  It’s America so they hire an attorney, who checks and finds out the driver had no training in safe food handling.  You say training isn’t required.  Case closed?

Not so fast, the attorney explains.  The driver “should have” taken food safety training according to FDA guidance, but didn’t – even though inexpensive training is available.  Now someone is seriously sick or worse.  Want to bet on how the jury decides?  Or just start writing out a big fat check to the plaintiff.

It is just a matter of time before a high profile case comes along of a child or infant getting sick (or even dying) that brings this issue into the spotlight.  Plaintiff’s attorneys may well turn illness from delivered food into the next big wave of lawsuits.  Like asbestos.

Now is the time to take action to prevent incidents and protect yourself.  Don’t wait until someone suspects that mishandling of a food delivery caused them to get sick. You certainly don’t want to have to explain why you never asked for proof of safe food delivery training from drivers.  Lawyers have a few choice words for that: “negligence”, “liability”, and “damages”.

A4DD member drivers – and your employees – can take our Safe Food Handling for Delivery Drivers training course in under an hour for around $10, or even less if you work with A4DD to publicize training as a driver requirement.

Please send your drivers this brief message about the need for/benefits of Safe Food Delivery training and letting them know about A4DD’s easy and affordable training course.

Sample driver contract language is also available.

Finally, for your reading pleasure, here is the FDA document that contains the new standards: “Guidance Document for Direct-to-Consumer and Third-Party Delivery Service Food Delivery”.