Adding Value to your Perishable business.

With a network of more than 200 destinations in over 80 countries, British Airways World Cargo is ideally placed to be your partner in the transportation of perishables. But it's not just our extensive route structure that makes us one of the world's leading carriers of fruits, vegetables, flowers, prepared foods, seafood, meat, fish and dairy products.

All consignments of fresh produce arriving at any of our three London gateways of Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted, are transferred in refrigerated vehicles to our unique Perishables Handling Centre, located on-airport at Heathrow. Special arrangements can also be made to collect arrivals from other airports and carriers.

Open 24 hours a day and 365 days of the year, this fully chilled facility is designed to help you reach your markets faster and keep your products fresher. On arrival at this 69,000 sq.ft. (6410 sq.mt.) complex, your consignment is carefully handled in a controlled environment until ready for despatch directly to supermarket distribution centres or markets.

Adding value to your business through supply chain integration

Bringing together all of the required distribution processes into one state-of-the-art facility means savings on time and improvements in quality. The range of handling activities available includes:

• On site customs clearance, by skilled staff in a fully customs-bonded environment equipped with 13 dock level arrival & despatch doors
• Container unloading using the latest handling equipment.
• Sorting of consignments to individual customer orders
• Blast cooling when required
• Storage and stock control in segregated cold stores
• Quality Control inspection & shelf life testing
• Label production
• Labelling & order picking
• Store-tray assembly
• Distribution direct to supermarket depots.

Heathrow Border Inspection Post (BIP)

For items such as seafood, meat & dairy products that require Health Inspection upon arrival, the facility also incorporates the Heathrow Border Inspection Post. Approved by the EU & DEFRA, the inspection point is open 24 hours a day. To find out more about our Heathrow BIP, please click here.

More information on the importation of these products can be found at http://www.defra.gov.uk.

Partnerships in Action

Capable of handling over 90,000 tonnes of perishables, this new facility is operated for British Airways World Cargo by Christian Salvesen who are leaders in the handling and distribution of temperature controlled goods throughout the UK & Europe.

More information on Christian Salvesen can be found at www.salvesen.com

Through this unique partnership, distribution solutions can be tailored to your needs.

To contact the Christian Salvesen team at the perishable handling centre, telephone the business solutions team on +44(0)208 513 9123, email andrew.brown@salvesen.com, or fax +44 (0)208 513 9195.

Ascentis - Equipped to handle your consignment in transit.

Our new Ascentis freight terminal at Heathrow is at the heart of our business, delivering quick connections across the British Airways World Cargo network.

Designed to minimise handling activity, this new multi- million pound investment includes special facilities for handling perishable consignments whilst in transit:

• 20 individual cold storage chambers to store containers whilst awaiting their onward connection.
• Ability to handle 40 pallets or 20 AAUs.
• Temperature control of each chamber can be set between 2 and 15ºC.

Bioterrorism Act Regulations.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the food regulatory agency in the United States of America (USA), has been directed by legislation to take additional steps to protect the public from a threatened or actual terrorist attack. These regulations apply from 12th December 2003.

This legislation applies to all shippers, agents and forwarders who import foodstuffs into, or who tranship foodstuffs into or out of, the USA.

In order to implement certain provisions of the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (the Bioterrorism Act), the FDA has established regulations, requiring that:

1. Registration

All facilities that hold food (as defined in the legislation) prior to arrival to the USA must register their premises with the FDA.

It is the responsibility of all shippers, agents and forwarders who hold and process or pack food items to register their premises with the FDA. Failure to comply with this requirement will mean that the food items will be refused entry at the port of arrival in the USA and held. All costs associated with the holding and eventual destruction of these goods will be met by the shipper/agent/forwarder.

2. Prior Notice

All shippers, agents, forwarders and importers of food to the USA (as defined in the legislation) must pre-notify the FDA of the arrival of those goods in line with the FDA requirement. The time frame for supplying this information for air freight is not more than 5 days and not less than 4 hours prior to the arrival of the shipment into the USA.

British Airways World Cargo will only accept goods which are 'ready for carriage'.

Prior notice (as outlined in the legislation) is the responsibility of the shipper/agent/forwarder. Failure to comply with the regulation means that the shipper/agent/forwarder will meet all the costs associated with the refusal of entry at the port of arrival in the USA. If customers are in any doubt as to whether their goods meet the criteria set out in the legislation, they should either download the appropriate page on the FDA website to check, or pre-notify the FDA as normal, as non-compliance is likely to be costly.

For further information, please visit the FDA website on http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fsbtact.html.