The Hidden Food Safety Danger No One is Talking About
Much has been written about the link between pests and food safety. It would be somewhat surprising if anyone reading this didn't know that cockroaches carry disease, or that flies can contaminate food. What has seen very little attention however, is the role that a pest control operator can play in the translocation of contaminates within a food handling, processing or packaging environment.
In my early days as a service technician, one of the accounts I was tasked with maintaining was a regional chain of grocery stores. I diligently went about placing and inspecting monitors. Cleaning and dating rodent control stations.Inspecting bottle and can return areas for cockroaches. Inspecting structural elements of the building for rodent or insect access. I took pride in the knowledge that I was helping protect this account,and the customers in the store, from pests and the diseases they carried.
One day, I heard about a recall of some product from this grocery chain due to contamination by Listeria, a common bacteria and cause of food-borne illness. This peaked my curiosity. Where could this bacteria have come from? How did this bacteria get into/onto the product? What part can I play to ensure I'm not contributing to the problem.
My curiosity led me to seek out food safety training and certification through the National Restaurant Association. I became ServSafe Level 1 Certified and had my eyes opened to many food safety implications for pest control operators that I had never before considered.
As Dirty as a Fly
Through the course of routine account maintenance, a pest control technician will kneel down numerous times at every account. Stations are handled, inspected, and cleaned before being replaced to their locations. Trash cans are often handled and inspected. Fly lights are cleaned and bulbs and glueboards replaced.If a rodent is captured, the carcass will need to be removed. I'm sure you can add numerous other activities depending on the exact make-up of any given account.
These points of contact between the unsanitary environment within the account and the technician are unavoidable. It would stand to reason then, that if a fly landing on the floor has the potential to acquire a food-borne illness and trans-locate it to a food product, then a technician kneeling on the floor, picking up a station, and then resting his hand (gloved or not) on a stainless steel prep table, would do the same. In fact, the knees of a technician's service uniform may in fact be better equipped to carry contaminants than a fly, roach or rodent.
Devices Aren't Exempt
Pest control devices are also subject to contamination in a food handling environment. Paper glueboards can become soiled and provide an ideal breeding ground for bacteria.Rodent control stations placed on a floor that is mopped or sprayed clean can accumulate water and food debris beneath them.
Preventing Contamination
During our in-house food Safety training program, we teach several habits to help minimize cross contamination and translocation risks by the presence and movements of our technical staff. These are Actions that become second nature for our technicians so that they don't even have to think about it,it's just part of what they do every day. Here's a few of the kinds of considerations that need to be made to ensure we are not contributing to a food safety hazard:
- Cover your knees. Hard cap knee pads made with nonporous materials are less likely to hold bacteria and can be quickly sanitized after each use with a product like Steri-fab. Aside from the obvious benefit to the longevity of the technician's joints, this prevents a technician's pants from becoming a carrier of a potential hazardous material.
- “No touch” policy. This means that a technician is not to touch any food contact surface within a facility. This includes, not using tables, counter tops, etc. as an aid to get up from a crouched or kneeling position. Bait and utility pouches carried on the technician's hip are also not to come into contact with any surfaces while the technician moves about the account. Gloves worn by technicians are for the technicians protection, not the food facilities. Often, after just a few minutes servicing an account, gloves will be contaminated. So don't place that gloved hand on any surface expecting It to be safe.
- Leave it where it is. Monitors, rodent control stations, insect light traps and other devices and equipment are never to be rested on any surface except where their appropriate placement would be. By this, I mean that if a rodent control device is normally positioned on the floor, then the floor is the only surface where the device can be rested. During servicing of the equipment, we prohibit the use of prep tables, processing equipment, counter tops, etc. to be used as a temporary resting place for any equipment that would not normally be placed on that surface.
- Carry-in-carry-out. All trash, dead insects or rodents, spent monitors or other waste generated during the course of our service is to be collected and removed from the account. We can not know the fate of what appears to us to be a trash receptacle. I have seen, in at least one food processing account, what appeared to be a trash receptacle, being used to hold product awaiting further processing. The wisdom of this practice not withstanding, we can't take the chance that we deposit our waste somewhere it should not to be.
Summary
As an industry working within the food handling and processing environments, it is critical to be an asset,and never become part of the problem. The more food safety training is integrated into Pest Management, the better we can protect the health and safety of the public.
