Pest Control for Food Processing Facilities

Food processing industries demand a high level of food safety and hygiene. Since pests are always attracted by food, it becomes extremely important to take effective pest control measures to achieve the food quality that the customers are seeking. After all, they would not like to consume something that can risk their health. Pests can lead to serious health risks and can be a threat to the health of your staff also. So it’s crucial that you take effective steps of food processing pest control to eliminate the pests before they destroy your business.

Why You Need to Invest in Pest Control Services

Food processing industry is the most vulnerable segment to the infestation of pests, rodents, and flies. Food processing pest control is necessary to deal with the pest threats. Here are few of them listed below:

• The infestation of diseases through the penetration of pests
• Damage to the property and reputation of your business
• Contamination of workplace and food products
• Closure of the business due to noncompliance of the hygiene standards

Integrated Food Processing Pest Control

IPM programs address the underlying reason of pest infestations and suggest preventive measures to avoid their infestation in the future. This approach focuses on preventing the infestation of the pests before they swarm inside your industry. Here are the steps involved in this approach:

Inspection

An effective IPM program focuses on protecting the health of your staff and customers through regular inspections. The meticulous inspection is mostly scheduled every week in your food processing industry, but at some plants, it can be scheduled even more frequently. The pest control professionals assess the facility and identify the risk posed by these pests. These inspections identify the areas where food is either stored, raw or packed. These obvious places might include storage areas, receiving docks, sites of ingredient spills, the employee break room, and water sources. The main aim of this program is to identify anything that might lead to contamination of food by the harmful pests and their activity.

Preventive Action

The objective of this step is to maintain a pest-free condition in your industry. A systematic approach should be followed to control the infestation of pests. You can either follow an exclusion, restriction, or destruction method to perform structural maintenance in your area. The close entry points that were revealed during the inspection stage get closed during this step. It’s important to maintain healthy hygiene and sanitation practices in your industry to make food processing pest control methods effective.

Identification

At this stage, the pest control professionals identify the problematic species of pests that can be eliminated more efficiently without employing harmful methods that can cause harm to other organisms. You can’t achieve total success in eliminating the pests until you know which procedure you will need to use to seek redress against this problem. The pest control professional should have complete knowledge about pest identification and how to effectively deal with them.

Analysis

Once the problem has been identified, you need to find out the reason for the infestation of pests in your area. There might be a drainage system or food debris in the nearby area that can lead to moisture accumulation and thereby becoming a breeding place for the pests. Once you know how the pests are making their way into your industry, you can correctly choose the control techniques. It’s also important to check the incoming shipments for infestation regularly.

Treatment Selection

At this stage, you need to select the control measures that you’ll implement to control the pest infestation in your industry. It’s mostly recommended to use nonchemical methods such as trapping and exclusion. If the nonchemical method fails to address your problem, you can use chemicals in the least volatile formulation. You need to find the best method that can completely eradicate the pests and ensure hygiene in your industry. While executing pest control for food processing industries, you should follow the food safety programs that do not harm the environment.

Monitoring

Pests can always return to your facility even after taking preventive measures to eliminate their growth. It will require constant monitoring to detect any kind of pest activity. Your staff needs to monitor the entire pest infestation control program efficiently so that you can achieve the maximum out of these weekly visits for inspection. They should also report any kind of sanitation issue that might prevail in that area and might have remained unnoticed by the professional. Remember you don’t need to rely on the professional completely, as your own efforts will count too in resolving this problem.

Documentation

This is the last step of the entire IPM program where food safety auditing is done to check whether you’re complying with the food safety standards or not. You need to be ready with your IPM program during this audit, as it accounts for up to 20% of the company’s score. You need to have the details of the pest control program in the form of a document so that the auditor feels that you take pest control seriously. The pest control documents include pesticide usage report, layout maps, service reports, the scope of service, applicator license, and list of approved pesticides. Every step mentioned above should be documented for further reference to higher authority and government bodies.

Best Prevention Measures to be Employed

Sanitation and exclusion are the most preferred preventive measures for the up to date functioning of the food processing industry. Your food supply chain shouldn’t be affected by the activity of pests, as they can turn these food items hazardous. You need to schedule pest control for your food processing facilities on a regular basis so that you maintain the hygiene standards and never compromise the health of your customers. It’s also important that you follow all the mandatory norms of food safety so that your industry is known for its high-quality products.

How Bug Busters Pest Control for Food Processing Facilities Can Help You

To carry out pest control for food processing industries in your area, you can contact Bug Busters. We ensure regular assessment of your industry to ensure the hygiene and sanitation of your place. The accuracy and effectiveness that we provide in eradicating the pests is something you won’t find with any other company.