In the wake of the number of food parks, manufacturing units, eateries… being planned across India, Clean India Journal takes stock of the different pest control mechanisms available, particularly for the food industry.
“Pests that can cause contamination in the food areas include cockroaches and flies. This does not mean that other pests are not active, especially with differential climatic conditions of India, every pest peaks during certain period of the year; thus necessitating increased precaution.”
When we talk of food industry in general, it would mean the food processing and the food serving segments involved in production, processing, distribution, preparing, packaging and serving. Consumption of pre-packaged food, partially or fully ready-to-cook/eat is on the rise and so are the number of outlets serving such foods.
While cleanliness & hygiene is the basic requirement to keep any kind of contamination at bay and to ensure food safety in any food related space, pest monitoring and control are equally essential.
“No doubt, hygiene is a prime factor where food is concerned; however, hygienic food area does not essentially eliminate the scope of pest and vice versa,” asserts Joshua Rao, Executive Director, Pest Control India Pvt. Ltd.
There are different low-chemical or non-chemical based pest technologies for food handlers. “For fly control in small food handling establishments, there are glue-based fly traps with no zapping, no fragmentation, no chemicals, and they are silent & ecofriendly,” explains Rao.
Pest management in the food industry can per se be addressed from two perspectives – the food processing and food handling. While walking into food joints and eateries is trendy, nobody pays any attention to the conditions under which the food is prepared.
The authorities have tightened its noose around the organised food manufacturers and handlers; however, the road side stall vendors are not yet getting penalized.
“When it comes to pest control we should be moving away from chemical usage,” says Rao. “We cannot eliminate chemicals altogether. It is important to understand where chemicals can be sprayed. Depending on the kind of pest, chemicals could be sprayed outside or in the area surrounding the food processing unit.” Spraying chemicals in the immediate vicinity enables to keep pest away from entering the food facility.
“Within the facility, no kind of chemical spray should be used, but there are mechanisms like the heat treatment to kill all kinds of insect pest. This is 100% safe as there is no chemical residue.”
Another solution for pests in food areas is the use of pheromone based products or “food based attractants”. It attracts cockroaches, traps and collects over a thousand of them on a glue board. “This is a silent, ecofriendly, effective and discreet solution as pheromone can be kept concealed from direct view. It has a longer effect requiring just periodic change of glue board and the attractant.”
In India, where food is served extensively in open areas, food stalls attract a lot of pests, especially flies.
F
Elimination of habitat
Removing waste material prevents development of larvae. This breaks the lifecycle of the fly, thereby preventing new growth of adult flies. While chemical and non-chemical strategies may be effective in suppressing adult fly populations, they are not a substitute for proper sanitation and aggressive elimination of fly developmental sites.
Chemical
Chemical larvicide spraying in and around areas outside the manufacturing unit where food waste is dumped can control breeding of larvae.
Non-chemical
Electric fly killers (EFKs): EFKs attract flies with the UV light emitted by UV tube lights and get electrocuted when they touch the electrified metal grid. These units when used externally by food processing units can control the adult fly population around the main building.
Electric fly catchers (EFCs): EFCs can be very effective within the processing unit to control the remaining flies that still manage to get into the processing unit despite the measures taken outside. Here the principle of attraction is the same but flies get stuck to the glue board
Sticky Ribbons: Sticky ribbons which have a pre-gummed ribbon strip and use UV to attract flies can also be used within the unit or outside to control flying population.
Dos and Don’ts for fly control
- Prevent breeding: Keep your surroundings clean and food waste covered at all times. All waste bins must have tight fitting lids. These bins must be closed at all times.
- Waste disposal: Dispose off food waste periodically
- Cleaning of drains: Keep the unit drainage clean, do not allow overflow of drainage by periodically removing blockage.
- Deny entry: Install air curtains, insect screens and automatic door closers to deny entry to flying pests
- Audit of insect entry sites: Conduct regular audits or ensure your pest control professional carries out audits and gives you reports on possible insect entry sites.
- Use non-chemical methods: Use non-chemical methods to control flies as much as possible by installing EFKs, EFCs, Sticky ribbons in sufficient numbers as recommended by the pest control professional working with you.
- Awareness / education about fly control: Ask your pest control professional to make a presentation on effective fly control for your unit personnel. This will increase the awareness and help in maintaining the environment free of flies.
Pest Control (India) Pvt. Ltd
“Simple solutions like use of glue-based ribbon work well in open food stalls. But at the same time, it cannot be termed as a very effective method to keep pests away given the fact that the food is being served in the open.”
All food businesses strive hard to meet the exact requireme
nts of the global food safety standards. Nowadays, the focus is not just on food handling practices and ingredients but also on other products and services that impact upon food safety. In this area, there is nothing more important than pest management. Rajan Prakash
In such cases, hygiene plays a very important role in keeping pests away.
“Every pest manager can be reactive in terms of treatment, but the critical angle is to prevent a problem through monitoring. If you are able to monitor, you will use less chemical to control and come up with a solution before pest actually becomes a problem. For example, the pheromone based trapping systems is a good indicator of the extent of pest in the facility, as it pinpoints the problem before it becomes an issue.”
By strategically placing pheromone traps based on the kind of pest in the vicinity, enables the pest manager to identify the points of ingress from outside the facility. Such monitoring ensures a pestcontrolled and infestation-free food premises.
Preventive Maintenance
To understand non-chemical based pest control methods, “we need to understand the cause of pests breeding. Pests exist because not enough measures have been taken to cut off the supply of food or alter the conducive environmental conditions which allow them to thrive,” says Rajan Prakash, Founder, Pestgogo.
“Some of the preventive measures to discourage pest breeding include:
- Making the premises unfriendly for pests so that they do not get food, water, hiding or breeding place.
- “Bio-pesticides” which is a contraction of ‘biological pesticides’, include several types of pest management intervention: through predatory, parasitic, or chemical relationships.
- Habitat modification.
- Good garbage/waste management
- Overall good facility management
Mechanical and electrical devices which creates different kind of barrier for them, generate and emit unfriendly sound and light waves.”
Even though, preventive maintenance is a must, “there are many impediments and challenges in implementation.
- Lack of coordination between stakeholders like facility management, pest management, maintenance
- Pest prevention given last priority while in project designing stage. Pest Management Professionals should be involved at project stage.
- Lack of education and training on pest hygiene to all stake holders by subject matter specialist (Pest
Management). - Insufficient pest prevention by civic bodies which increases the pest pressure from outside.
- High foot fall to food area creating more pressure.”
Besides preventive maintenance, it is equally important to maintain the facility clean to prevent pests.
“Absence of proper hygiene practices in food premises actually adds up contributory factors for growth of pests. This would make any other form of pest management activity – untenable. It would lead to the only option of chemical treatment at higher and higher dosage which is unacceptable.
“The risks presented by pests are great and so too, is the activity of other fellow people working in high risk environments. The effectiveness and practices of the pest control company are vital. Leading food businesses have to pay particular attention to the quality of such services and the conformance of the pest agency to exacting pre-requisites.”