On January 4th, 2011, the FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act) was passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate and signed into law by President Barack Obama. It was the first major overhaul of the nation's food safety practices since 1938. The focus of the law was to create a shift from a regulatory system that responds to food contamination to one that prevents it.
Essentially, the FSMA is a set of rules. Each "rule" is a document containing hundreds of pages, and in the Preventive Controls for Human Food rule, the word "pest" is mentioned more than 100 times. It appears as pest exclusion, pest harborage, pest control, pest infestation, and more. While no new regulations were implemented in the FSMA, it definitely reaffirms what the government considers to be the current Good Manufacturing Practices. Let's take a quick look at what this means for your business.
Detailed analysis of the FSMA rules yields one solitary point the U.S. government wants business owners to understand about pests: Food and pests should not be allowed in the same areas. It is just that simple.
If you grow, process, transport, store, prepare, or sell food, it is vital that you have a pest management system in place to ensure the exclusion of pests in sensitive areas. This pest exclusion is best done through a process called Integrated Pest Management.
IPM is a modern set of practices that rely on a combination of close inspection, monitoring, proper identification, sanitation, pest-proofing and other exclusion installations, harborage reduction, trapping, environmental controls, a focused and limited application of EPA-approved products, an education in pest habits and habitats, and detailed record keeping to safeguard sensitive environments from pest contamination. When pest management is done this way it meets and exceeds the governmental rules set in place by the FSMA, and provides the documentation needed for government inspectors to quickly get the information they need. This leads to fewer audits.
If you operate a business that handles food, and you are in our service area of Indiana, Kentucky, or Illinois, reach out to us today to set up a consultation. We'll outline a service plan that will get your business into compliance, and provide the documentation and professional pest protocols that will keep your business running smoothly.
Action Pest Control is a leader in commercial pest control with on-staff entomologists, no-hassle scheduling, convenient billing, pest information available through PestPac Mobile, and guaranteed 24-hour emergency service response. If your company doesn't have a pest plan in place, take action and get Action.