In short: Good distribution practice is a quality framework governing how products, particularly temperature-sensitive food and pharmaceutical goods, must be handled, stored and transported to preserve their safety and integrity.
What GDP is
Good distribution practice is a quality framework that defines the conditions under which products must be stored, handled and transported to preserve their quality and safety from the point of manufacture to the end recipient. In the pharmaceutical sector, GDP guidelines are issued by regulatory authorities including the European Medicines Agency. In the food sector, GDP principles are embedded in broader food safety and hygiene regulations and in private certification schemes, rather than forming a single standalone legal instrument.
Scope and ownership
In the EU, pharmaceutical GDP is governed by guidelines published under Directive 2001/83/EC and related guidance from the European Medicines Agency. For food and agri products, GDP-aligned requirements appear in EU food hygiene regulations, in temperature control rules for specific product categories, and in private schemes such as BRCGS, IFS and FSSC. Ukraine has its own food safety and transport hygiene legislation, and exporters must meet both Ukrainian requirements for export and EU requirements on entry.
Relevance to Ukraine–EU food trade
Buyers of temperature-sensitive Ukrainian food products, including frozen berries, dairy, meat and fresh produce, routinely require suppliers and their logistics partners to demonstrate GDP-aligned controls. This means documented temperature management plans, calibrated monitoring equipment, qualified personnel and records that can be audited. Reefer transport on the Ukraine–EU corridors must maintain agreed temperature ranges throughout, with continuous logger records as evidence.
How compliance is verified
For pharmaceutical goods, GDP compliance is verified by national competent authorities through inspections and wholesale dealer licences. For food products, compliance with GDP-aligned controls is typically verified through third-party audits under private certification schemes or through buyer-led supplier audits. Buyers should request temperature records, calibration certificates for monitoring equipment and documented standard operating procedures from logistics providers. Certificates issued under private schemes should be verified on the relevant scheme’s public certificate database.
Applying it to food logistics
In food trade, distribution practice is usually checked through the carrier’s and the cold store’s own procedures rather than a single certificate. Buyers ask for temperature mapping of the store or the trailer, calibration records for probes and loggers, cleaning records, and the procedure for handling a temperature excursion. Agree in the transport contract who downloads the logger, how long records are kept and what happens to a load that arrives outside the agreed range, so a dispute can be settled from the documents rather than from memory.