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Accurately tracing a pest infestation throughout an entire supply chain is no easy task. Not all pest control providers are capable of this service, but it is crucial to those in the food processing and manufacturing industries–especially when international shipping is involved.
Here are the top three reasons why you should prioritize finding a pest control provider that can offer pest traceability:
- Effective pest traceability requires thorough documentation and preparedness in your facility’s program. A part of pest traceability is having thorough and complete documentation about your facility’s pest control program. Especially in the food industry, proper documentation that demonstrates your facility is up to date and on par with requirements for its Integrated Pest Management program is critical in helping to eliminate your facility as the cause of a pest infestation. It’s also useful to have detailed documentation of your Integrated Pest Management plan during routine pest control check-ins and unexpected auditor visits. And, if your facility needs to be inspected by someone else in a pest tracing exercise, you will have the proper documentation and a pest control provider who is willing to assist in the investigation.
- Pest traceability can help ensure the pest issue is solved wherever it falls in the supply chain. If pests are discovered in or on your product, suppliers and customers may assume the infestation occurred in your facility. Sometimes, that is not true – supply chains are lengthy, the time goods spend waiting in the supply chain has astronomically increased over the last two years, and it is possible that the infestation occurred sometime after the product left your facility altogether. Ensuring your pest control program is up to date and well documented and utilizing a provider that is capable of pest tracing, helps to ensure the burden of correcting an infestation falls on whomever is responsible.
- Pest traceability confirms where pests infiltrated a supply chain so that recommendations can be made on how to help prevent further issues. So, we know the pests didn’t contaminate your goods in your facility, but where did it happen? When a pest infestation affects your goods, if your pest control provider is capable of pest tracing, they can help investigate all aspects of the supply chain to figure out where the pest infestation occurred. Your pest control provider will work with the pest control providers for all other points of the supply chain to try and figure out where the infestation most likely occurred and help prevent it from happening again in the future.
Keeping pests away from food will always prove to be a difficult task, especially with today’s supply chain environment. It’s important now more than ever to choose the right pest control provider to help you throughout every step of your process (and supply chains, when necessary).
