Integrated Pest Management: A Vital Component Of Food Safety

By Melissa Lind, contributing writer

Though sterilization, good food-handling practices, and contamination prevention are hot issues in food safety, pest management is an important aspect of keeping food-producing facilities safe. Just like other food-safety issues, the best way to manage pests is through prevention.

A major concern with pests in food-making facilities is the threat of contamination. In the past, a good deal of pest management was done through treatment of infestations, often with toxic chemicals. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an “environmentally sensitive” approach to pest management. IPM is used in agricultural settings, but it is also particularly suited to the food-processing and -manufacturing industries.

IPM programs use known life-cycles of pests to prevent issues in a proactive manner. It is not a single treatment, but a series of evaluations, decisions, and controls. Depending on the setting, judicial application of pesticides may be required, but the pesticides can often be chosen to be eco-friendly and even to comply with organic practices.

IPM programs work in a four-step method, each of which requires careful documentation.

Setting Pest Thresholds
Like other systems in food safety, parameters need to be set. While zero tolerance is desirable, observation of a single insect does not necessarily mean that the whole plant needs to be treated. Facilities need to establish a threshold at which pests pose a threat to food safety.

Monitoring And Identifying Pests
Identification of the pests is critical to establishing prevention methods. This identification will help determine when pesticides may be needed and what types of treatment may be effective so that over application can be avoided.

Preventing Pests
This may be the most important portion of an effective IPM — preventing pests from becoming established in the first place. This involves ensuring food products are not allowed to accumulate in areas that will attract pests. In addition to the care taken to ensure equipment is sanitized, thorough cleaning of storage and non-production areas eliminates pests’ food supply.

Controlling Pests
If threshold levels are reached, prevention is no longer possible. Based on monitoring and identification, a control method must be enacted. Ideally, less-risky methods with lower chances of contamination are employed first with broad spectrum pesticide application being a last resort. If an infestation becomes severe enough to warrant such methods, a temporary shutdown may be needed.

Pest control is not an option, it is a must. The consequences — increased regulatory pressure along with legal and economic consequences — are not pleasant and avoidable. IPM practices will allow you to comply with, and even exceed, food-safety regulations while protecting your brand’s reputation.