Many of us think of pests as just a nuisance, but the truth is, pest are a food safety hazard for sure.
They pose a significant threat to food safety, These uninvited guests can spread bacteria and other pathogens and contaminate kitchen surfaces putting your health and the public at risk.
In this post we will tell you the top 3 ways pests can wreak havoc on your food safety.
How can Pests affect the food safety ?
In food industry, it is not accepted to neglect pest control, otherwise they can badly affect the safety of our foods,
which then can be translated to serious even deadly foodborne illnesses.
Pests can affect the food safety in many ways, here are 3 of the most common ways:
Disease Transmission
Pests like rodents , insects, flies and small birds can be found parking anywhere.
Garbage and waste areas are usually attracting these pests, as they can easily find their food and nest in these areas.
This makes them good carriers for disease causing pathogens, like bacteria, and parasites.
The most common bacteria they carry are E- Coli, campylobacter and other bacteria that can cause gastrointestinal complications.
The harmful pathogens may be transmitted through the pest’s urine, stool, saliva or even their blood and body parts.
When these pathogens contact the foods inside kitchen,
they for sure can cause their consequences for anybody who is consuming these foods.
Surface Contamination and Damage
Another way by which pests can affect the food safety is by contaminating food preparation surfaces.
When pests are walking and crawling inside the food preparation and storage areas,
their foot steps which are carrying millions of pathogens contaminate these surfaces.
The same thing happens if pests dripped their urine or blood on food preparation surfaces.
As these pests move, they shed their hair, skin or body parts on the surfaces or storage areas.
Another post discusses which storage practice could cause cross-contamination in more detail, you can read it if you want.
After that these fragments can settle on foods while being prepared.
Compromising the Health of Employees
Another indirect way by which pests can form a food safety hazard and affect the safety of our foods,
is when these pests are carrying infectious pathogens that can cause illness to the employees.
Many insects like mosquitoes and bees can transmit diseases to workers directly through bites and stings.
The infection can range from mild symptoms to severe illnesses.
The workers can then continue handling and dealing with foods,
and this lead to the transmission of pathogens to foods.
Here comes the importance of pest control procedures.
Shortly let’s list some of the benefits that can be gained by implementing effective pest control procedure:
- By having good pest control programs,
you will have someone who has adequate knowledge about different pests to identify what exactly you are dealing with. And select the proper controls for your threat.
- The moral benefit behind having a good pest control program is great, enough protecting public health and stop unwanted suffering
- By having good pest control, you can avoid many legal issues, as you are complying with public health regulations and laws.
- Always safety is good from financial point of view.
Although you will pay for implementing this pest control system, but you will avoid huge losses by improving the quality of your products.
- All these mentioned benefits will then be translated into improving your business’s reputation and growing your brand in a steady rate.
Conclusion
We need to face the fact that pests are a food safety hazard and not only as annoying enemy.
Pests are not only rodents, they can be insects, flies and even birds.
The effect of pets on the food safety may be direct like contaminating the foods inside the store or preparation zones, or contaminating the preparation surfaces.
And can also be indirect, if these pests caused infectious diseases for workers who will then transmit these pathogens to foods.
Pests are called silent spreaders, as they can spread and multiply rapidly by laying their eggs anywhere at the food industry facility.
It is very crucial to have a good IPM system to gain countless benefits.
If you are interested in improving your knowledge about food safety, i recommend reading this post to identify many ways to prevent poor food safety inside your organization or home.
And if you own a food business where you are storing big quantities of foods, check these unsafe storage practices that can affect the food safety.
