Regulation

In accordance with the provisions of Article R231-45 of the Rural and Maritime Fishing Code (CRPM), the means of transporting perishable foodstuffs must be chosen from categories and classes of means which allow the storage temperatures set for the different categories of food to be respected throughout the duration of the transport.

These devices must have:

• Either an ATP technical conformity certificate (required for international transport between States signatory to the ATP agreement);
• Either a certificate of technical conformity limited to the national territory for transport vehicles recognized as having guarantees equivalent to the classes of vehicles defined in the ATP agreement;
• Pursuant to Article R 231-47 of the CRPM, the technical conformity certificate is not required for equipmentused in the following cases (see also Information Note No. 1):
  • Transport carried out under proven harsh climatic conditions, clearly making refrigeration production unnecessary throughout the transport;
  • Transport of any food in a chilled or frozen state, over a distance from the loading point of less than 80 km without breaking load;
  • Transport by tanker of milk and cream intended for industry over a distance from the loading point of less than 200 km without breaking load;
  • Transport of frozen fishery products from a cold storage facility to an approved establishment to be thawed upon arrival, for preparation purposes, when the distance to be covered does not exceed 80 km and when the duration of the journey is less than one hour.
• Technical conformity certificates for machinery in service must be renewed at 6 years and 9 years based on a test carried out in one of the test centers recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and renewed at 12 years in an official test station.