Employing HACCP in pest control: Ensuring food safety in business operations

Pests have a huge impact on food businesses. In the hospitality sector, they can potentially come into contact with surfaces, ingredients or storage areas and spread pathogens.

The situation is equally challenging in food logistics and warehousing, where multiple-entry storage facilities are vulnerable to pests. Or in food processing, where pest problems cause costly contamination of raw materials, infest clean machinery and severely disrupt production processes.

So how do you address pest issues, whilst also remaining compliant with food safety principles in high-dependency environments in the process?

Employing a HACCP framework for food safety management

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) is the internationally recognised framework for reducing the risk of safety hazards in food – pests included. The hazards HACCP covers include biological, chemical or physical hazards, which can be caused by pests which infest establishments and become a potential source of microbiological and physical hazards.

Based on HACCP principles, food safety management is a systematic preventive approach for businesses seeking guidance in this challenging area.

What are the 7 steps of HACCP?

First, let’s break down the seven steps of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) – a systematic approach to food safety that aims to identify, evaluate, and control hazards.

1. Conduct a Hazard Analysis: Identify potential hazards that could occur in the food production process, from raw material production, procurement, and handling to manufacturing, distribution, and consumption of the finished product.

2. Determine the Critical Control Points (CCPs): Identify points in the process where the identified hazards can be prevented, eliminated, or reduced to safe levels. These are the stages at which control is essential for safety.

3. Establish Critical Limits: Set maximum or minimum limits for the CCPs that must be met to ensure the hazard is controlled. Critical limits may include temperature, time, pH, moisture level, or other measurable factors.

4. Establish Monitoring Procedures: Develop procedures to monitor CCPs to ensure they stay within the critical limits. This might involve continuous or periodic testing and observation.

5. Establish Corrective Actions: Define actions to be taken when monitoring indicates that a CCP is not within the established critical limits. These actions are intended to correct and eliminate the cause of the deviation and prevent the recurrence of the hazard.

6. Establish Verification Procedures: Implement procedures for verifying that the HACCP system is working effectively. This may include validation activities such as reviewing records and conducting tests and audits.

7. Establish Record-Keeping and Documentation Procedures: Maintain documentation of all procedures and records of monitoring, corrective actions, and verification activities. This ensures traceability and accountability in the food safety management system.

Benefits of HACCP International certified
products

Pest control products with HACCP International certification need to demonstrate compliance with food safety principles in their product design and operation. The review process to achieve certification is carried out by food safety technologists, who perform a rigorous review of every aspect of each product, covering:

• Materials and specifications: Identifying food safety hazards relating to the formulation of the product and its design
• Toxicity: Looking at mammalian toxicity alongside potential human allergies
• Contamination risks: Examining whether measures are in place to prevent contamination through packaging design, labelling and delivery methods
• Operating/ user instructions: Ensuring users have clear instructions relating to application methods, dilution areas and protecting food areas
• Consequences of error: Ensuring users are aware of the impact of incorrect use of products such as incorrect product selection or application method
• Batch and process controls: Looking at traceability and accessibility of batch records for reviewing product quality issues
• Packaging and labelling: Testing whether packaging is fit for purpose and prevents the likelihood of spillage or overdosing

This level of assessment is comprehensive, the advantage for food businesses is peace of
mind that HACCP International certified products are compliant, fit for purpose and suitable
for use in food handling areas.

Rentokil’s range of HACCP International certified
products

Our experts at the Global Research and Development Centre have worked closely with
HACCP International to achieve certification on pest control solutions specifically developed to address emerging food safety challenges, meet strict regulatory requirements and support the needs of our customers in the food industry. Our range of HACCP International
certified rodent management products includes:

• Fluorescent tracking gel: A non-toxic, non-drying gel that bonds to rodent pests, leaving a trail visible under UV light. An ideal tool for the investigation of rodent movement to pinpoint the optimal placement of bait and monitoring stations
• PestConnect range: The world’s leading intelligent pest management system, providing 24/7 remote monitoring and immediate control of rodent pests
  • Dual AutoGate Connect: Outdoor rat and mice control solution featuring controlled baiting technology; with bait kept in a separate compartment until an infestation is proven
  • Rat Riddance Connect: Non-toxic rat control solution with a replaceable trap to maintain hygiene standards
  • Rodent Activated Detection and Riddance (RADAR): Award-winning, bait-free mouse control solution; hygienically contains eliminated mice to prevent cross-contamination
• Lumnia insect light traps: A range of 5 insect light traps developed for discreet protection against flying insects in food environments; pesticide-free, safe and hygienic encapsulation of caught insects and insect fragments

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