Food Quality & Safety
  • Home
  • About
    Us
    • Food Quality & Safety‘s Mission
    • Contact Us
    • Authors
    • Manage Subscription
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Copyright
    • Privacy Policy
  • On the
    Farm
  • Safety & Sanitation
    • Environmental Monitoring
    • Hygiene
    • Pest Control
    • Clean In Place
    • Allergens
    • Sanitizing
    • Training
  • Quality
    • Authenticity
    • Textures & Flavors
    • Labeling
    • Shelf Life
    • Outsourcing
    • Auditing/Validation
    • Supplier Programs
  • Testing
    • Seafood
    • Dairy
    • Hormones/Antibiotics
    • Produce
    • Ingredients
    • Beverages
    • Meat & Poultry
    • Animal Food
  • In the
    Lab
    • Lab Software
    • Pathogen Control
    • Physical Properties
    • Contaminants
    • Measurement
    • Sampling
  • Manufacturing & Distribution
    • Information Technology
    • Plant Design
    • Foreign Object Control
    • Temperature/Humidity
    • Packaging
    • Transportation
    • Tracking & Traceability
  • Food Service & Retail
    • Cleaning & Sanitizing
    • Stock Management
    • Hygiene
    • Food Preparation
    • Allergens
    • Education
    • Temperature Monitoring
  • Regulatory
    • FSMA
    • Guidelines & Regulations
    • Recalls
  • Resources
    • Whitepaper
    • Webinars
    • Video
    • Events
    • Food Library
    • Jobs
  • FQ&S
    Award
  • Search

Being Proactive about Pest Control

January 16, 2019 • By Michelle Hartzer, BCE

  • Tweet
Print-Friendly Version

Picture this: A dad hands his daughter a box of morning cereal, which she rips opens in excitement. While grabbing the toy out of the box, she drops it and screams, spilling cereal all over the floor—there are bugs in the cereal!

You Might Also Like
  • Top 10 Sanitation and Maintenance Strategies to Prevent Pests
  • How to Know if a Pest Management Company is the Right Fit
  • Small Pest: Big Problem, Avoid Stored-Product Pest Damage
Explore this issue
February/March 2019

It’s easy to see how pest problems in a food processing facility can turn into a big problem. Pests can directly hurt your bottom line by contaminating products or equipment, causing you to either throw out and/or replace costly shipments. If products make it all the way to the consumer with pests, it could have a devastating impact on your brand, especially with today’s social media connectedness.

ad goes here:advert-1
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Instead of waiting for pest issues to occur, plan ahead. The Food Safety Modernization Act mandates a proactive approach to food safety, so sitting back and waiting for issues to occur is no longer an option. Aside from the legal implications, being proactive will help you protect your facility and bottom line from pests. In today’s globalized world, food processing facilities now have to pay attention to their supply chain too.

The Basics of Pest Control

Every food business should have an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program to mitigate the risk of pest issues. These programs—which emphasize customized, proactive, integrated solutions whenever possible—require a strong partnership between the facility manager, employees, and the pest management professional to implement and continue to improve over time. Traceability is also an integral part of a strong IPM program, as it can help prevent pests internally and externally and ensure pest issues are resolved promptly.

Every IPM program will have some form of documentation to record pest issues, and many pest management companies offer extensive data tracking to see how pest populations are trending over time to identify areas for improvement. Careful documentation is crucial for demonstrating compliance to an auditor, and it can help trace pest issues back to the source. Talk to partners throughout the supply chain to establish documentation protocols as well, since determining the source of an infestation is an important first step in resolving a pest problem. Make it a point to notify supply chain partners when pest issues are traced back to them, as they might not be aware of these issues at their own facility.

Traceability is a big part of food safety, especially as more global supply chains are formed, but it can be confusing to determine which documents are most important to maintain to create visibility and be prepared for an audit. The following documents are a great place to start.

ad goes here:advert-2
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Food safety plan. The food safety plan is the most important piece of documentation. Because this is a larger, overarching document, focus on the pest management portion and what can be done to update and improve it for now. While a food safety plan should cover all aspects of the facility and products, for pest management specifically the plan should include details about all activities done to proactively ensure products are protected from pests. Make sure to incorporate all potential hazards, preventive controls, and corrective actions implemented to reduce risk. It’s also important to include monitoring and verification procedures. If possible, include information about suppliers and their programs. A crucial part of ensuring pest issues are traceable is to show that incoming and outgoing shipments are being inspected, as this will help catch pest issues before they get further down the supply chain.

List of service changes. Every IPM program needs to adapt and change as pest pressure does. No two facilities are the same, and pest pressure can shift from year to year depending on a variety of external factors, like nearby construction driving rodents from their homes. Anytime changes are made to the program, note how and why the changes have been made. At a minimum, review the plan at least once per year.

Pages: 1 2 3 Single Page

Filed Under: Home Slider, Pest Control, Safety & Sanitation Tagged With: Food Quality, Food Safety, Pest Control, Pest ManagementIssue: February/March 2019

You Might Also Like:
  • Top 10 Sanitation and Maintenance Strategies to Prevent Pests
  • How to Know if a Pest Management Company is the Right Fit
  • Small Pest: Big Problem, Avoid Stored-Product Pest Damage
  • Watch Out for These 3 Summertime Pests

Comments

  1. Yashraj says

    January 25, 2019 at 3:08 am

    Informative post. All the food processing company should take care that the areas around are pest free so the health of the customers are maintained. Keep sharing such posts and educating the readers.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Current Issue

February/March 2019

  • Issue Articles »
  • Current Issue PDF »
  • Subscribe »
  • Follow Us:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Food Quality & Safety Blog  

Conducting Impactful Internal Audits Beyond the Checklist

How intuitive methods, such as data visualization, enable the ability to both observe and listen objectively.

Previous posts »

Paid Partner Content

PURE Hard Surface

EPA registered food contact surface sanitizer and disinfectant delivers broad spectrum power to eliminate dangerous pathogens

Transport Sanitation Compliance

Disinfection application methodology ensures full coverage for all motor and rail vehicles, and is FSMA compliant

  • Recall News
  • Industry News
    • Sid Wainer and Son Recalls Jansal Valley Dukkah Due to Glass Pieces
    • Birdseed Food Recalls Craft Granola Goldenola Turmeric & Ginger for Undeclared Cashews
    • World Waters Recalls Select 12 Packs Due Soft Plastic Pieces
    • VICS Acquisition Recalls Chicken Due to Undeclared Allergens
    • Frito-Lay Recalls Stacy’s Simply Naked Pita Chips Due to Undeclared Allergen
    View more »
    • FDA Releases Report on 2018 E. coli Outbreak Tied to Romaine Lettuce
    • Study: Fruit Juices Contain High Levels of Heavy Metals
    • International Push to Improve Food Safety
    • How Consumer Perception of Sweeteners is Impacting Food Industry
    • U.S. EPA Wins New Chance to Argue Against Pesticide Ban
    View more »
ASBPE 2018 National Print Award Winner

Polls

How confident are you in your organization’s hand hygiene protocol?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive

Whitepapers

  • Fast, Quantitative Analysis of 1000+ Pesticides Using MRM Mass Spectrometry

View More Whitepapers »

On-Demand Webinars

  • ON-DEMAND WEBINAR: Increase Productivity in Your Lab Operation
  • ON-DEMAND WEBINAR: Is Your Supply Chain Safe?

View More Webinars »

Food Quality & Safety (formerly Food Quality) is the established authority in delivering strategic and tactical approaches necessary for quality assurance, safety, and security in the food and beverage industry.

Advertise / Subscribe / Contact Us / Privacy Policy

ASBPE Award Winner

Copyright © 2000–2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., a Wiley Company. All rights reserved. ISSN 2399-1399

Wiley

This site uses cookies: Find out more.