A Pest Control Program

PURDUE EXTENSION Safe food guidelines for small meat and poultry processors FS-22-W A Pest Control Program Introduction Basic pest control in the food Kevin Keener, Ph.D., P.E. Outline processing plant is an essential prerequisite food safety program. Food process engineer, Extension 1. What is a pest control program? 2. Common pests in the food plant Unfortunately, many processors have specialist, and associate professor never established a systematic, written of food science 2.1 Cockroaches 2.2 Flying insects pest control program. This fact sheet 2.3 Pest of stored products outlines the pests of concern and steps 2.4 Rodents that the small processor can take to 2.5 Bird pests start a pest control program. 3. Integrated pest management 1. What is a pest control program? 4. Verification of pest control All meat and poultry processing programs facilities, regardless of size, must have 5. Action steps for the processor a written Sanitation program. One section of the Sanitation program (9 CFR 416.2(a), http://a257. g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/ 14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo. gov/cfr_2002/janqtr/9cfr416.2.htm) is the control of pests: insects, rodents, and birds. GMPs (Good Manufacturing Practices) specified in the Code of The common housefly is a Federal Regulations (CFR) clearly known carrier of diseases and specify that pests cannot be present pathogens, including listeria and in the food-processing environment salmonella. The housefly vomits (CFR Title 21, Part 110.35 http://a257. stomach fluid onto its food and g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/ sucks up the dissolved nutrients. 14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo. Flyspecks are dried vomit and gov/cfr_2002/aprqtr/21cfr110.35. fecal material. It has been htm). To prevent infestation, the processor must create a proactive estimated that in a six-month program for stopping these pests from period, a pair of houseflies and threatening the safety and quality of their descendants would total the product. 191,000,000,000,000,000,000 if all the offspring survived. Actual numbers of surviving offspring are much less. A Pest Control Program (FS-22-W) Table 1. To create a plan or contract with an outside pest controller? Processor-supported program Contracted program Upfront cost Lower, usually Higher Processor time commitment High Virtually none Pest control expertise Low, usually High Recordkeeping Processor supported Contractor supported Equipment and chemicals Processor must obtain Contractor supplies Validation materials Processor obtains Contractor supplies Overall benefits Must be evaluated by the processor, taking into account all the factors necessary to develop and maintain the program The pest control program is a stand-alone program and is also a part of the plant’s food safety system. Most The pest control program is considered a small food plants must decide whether to maintain a prerequisite program. It is necessary for a pest control program themselves or contract the plant to implement a pest control program program to a pest control company. There are positive to prevent adulteration of product. It is a and negative aspects of each approach. Table 1 lists necessary part of the total plant food some things to consider. safety program. Many small processing facilities hire a pest control company because the processor lacks the personnel and expertise to run such a program. Of course, a pest Items included in a pest control program control contractor should be reputable and have 1. Pest control procedures — The activities proper training and experience. A pest control performed to control each type of pest. The written contractor must provide records and reports to the procedures should be detailed and include processor verifying that the program is effective and frequency of action. operating successfully. This verification is usually 2. Recordkeeping — The documentation of each done through visual inspection for pests and/or performed activity. These records must be accurate, evidence of pests in the plant or product. The up-to-date, and include inspection for evidence of processor must maintain these records with the plant’s pests in each plant area. hazard analysis records to prove that the contracted 3. Responsible individuals — The person(s) who are pest control program is effective. The verification charged with performing pest control procedures records should include evidence of contractor training and recordkeeping. Also, the supervisor responsible and certification to apply pesticides in a food- for signing off on reviewed records. manufacturing environment, and evidence that the 4. Deviation — Evidence of a pest problem is a pesticides are approved for such use. subjective determination that requires expertise. For Many processors choose to develop and maintain example, periodically finding a cockroach under a a pest control program themselves. An effective trashcan may be acceptable, but finding many program can be developed in-house if the processor cockroaches would be a deviation. A deviation has understands how to control pests. The program would occurred when an allowable limit has been exceeded. consist of several written sections. 5. Corrective measures — These are written action Purdue’s Department of Entomology offers six steps in the plan that will be performed if there is a self-study, online courses in pest management deviation from the pest control program. Often, (https://www.continuinged.purdue.edu/media/pest/), they may include increasing control procedures, including one on pest management in food plants. retraining of employees, cleaning up the area, etc. 2 A Pest Control Program (FS-22-W) 6. Verification and validation — Written scientific harbor the insects or their eggs cases). This is done by evidence that the procedures are effective at sealing and filling cracks and crevices and maintaining controlling pests. This material is often available a sealed, smooth surface throughout the plant in from chemical, trap, and pest control equipment production and nonproduction areas. Seal junction makers. Also, verification is documentation of boxes, receptacles, and control panels. Seal openings visual inspection for evidence of pests. around conduits and pipes where they pass through 2. Common pests in the walls and ceilings. Inspect incoming shipments (packaging, ingredients, etc.) and reject infested processing plant and ways to control them shipments. Chemical control requires that EPA- 2.1 Cockroaches permitted insecticides be used in the food plant. These There is no insect, other than the housefly, that is products are generally formulated as sprays, aerosols, more easily recognized and detested than the cockroach. or dusts. Dry powders and dusts, such as boric acid and Cockroaches have been shown to transmit diseases insecticide powders, take advantage of the cockroaches’ including pathogenic foodborne bacteria such as habit of preening themselves. It is important to salmonella, Vibrio cholerae, Staphylococcus aureus, and understand that no pesticide can be used in a food others both in the insect’s gut and on its exterior surface. processing plant unless EPA has approved such use. 2.2 Flying insects The most common flying insects are the housefly and fruit fly. A single housefly has been estimated to carry up to 3.6 million bacteria. Flies transmit disease by spending part of their life in direct contact with or in close contact to fecal matter or decaying material. Flies must liquefy their food before ingestion, so they secrete salvia (often called vomitus) on surfaces. The movement of flies from unwholesome food sources to fresh food products, processing equipment, and other surfaces provides many opportunities to transmit disease-causing bacteria. Removal and elimination of breeding sites is a key Detection: Each species has specific habitat to fly control. This primarily involves the availability of preferences, although any species could be found in a garbage. Garbage must be located away from doors and food plant building. A good way to detect cockroaches removed frequently, and waste disposal areas must be is to enter a darkened production or storage area, turn properly maintained. Next, flies must be excluded from on the lights, and quickly look for roaches scurrying entering the food processing facility. This includes back into hiding. Cockroaches also may be found by using air curtains (air screens) and/or doors that close inspecting inside electrical junction boxes, receptacles, automatically. and control panels, or by looking behind objects and in floor drains. Glue traps often are a good monitoring Electrocution traps with blue fluorescent light traps device; some come equipped with a pheromone are effective in reducing flying insects, including flies. attractant. The use of flushing gases (a number of One drawback to these electrocution traps is that they pyrethroid aerosol products are very good for this literally cause the fly to explode, throwing aerosolized purpose) is a common method of driving them out in fly matter into the air. Because those particles can drift the open. These materials are so highly repellant that a down some distance from the trap, it is best to place single squirt into a suspect crack or crevice can cause these traps away from food-handling areas, or well the roaches to come boiling out into the light. Also, look removed from food-handling surfaces in those areas. for droppings and egg cases that indicate their presence. Blue-lighted sticky traps, baited jug traps and strips, or sticky ribbons

Load more