Corrosion damage to the structure of aircraft from spills of seafood cargo was causing additional maintenance work at great expense to airlines. A committee was established in the late 1980s to define minimum packaging standards for the shipment of seafood by air.
The resulting charter of the Seafood Air Transport Committee, and its subsequent updates, effectively sets the regulatory standards for shipping seafood by air with Qantas Freight.
Committee membership consists of representatives from Australian domestic airlines, Australian air freight operations and may be open to international airlines involved in freighting seafood.
Seafood regulations overview
The charter outlines a broad range of packaging and labelling conventions and guidelines to ensure the safest and most cost effective way to transport seafood, covering:
- General approval and packing requirements
- Standardised gross mass for small packages
- Fibreboard and expanded polystyrene containers
- Waterproof bags, films and absorption materials
- Tying, securing and vacuum sealing options
- Decorative fibreboard sleeves on EPS boxes
- Rules for re-using ontainers
- And other guidelines.