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Challenges with Commercial Food Audited Facilities and Food Inspection Pest Control Services

For 25+ years GreenLeaf Pest Control have serviced commercial audited facilities in Toronto, Kitchener and throughout the GTA.  Trust me when I say this: Kudos to the pest control professionals who dedicate countless hours protecting these facilities. As Protectors of Public Health, companies like Greenleaf Pest Control are indispensable!  We constantly pull our entire team off the road for training. It’s the vast knowledge on audit schemes, pest biology, microbiology, technology, pest control services, customer service, building construction and attention to details (that’s the hard one) that makes us great! As trained pest inspectors and as your pest management provider we must decipher the clues and stop pest issues before they happen….this is no easy task.  

What constitutes a commercial facility?

How do I define a commercial facility or client? Well, basically it’s everyone but residential. Recently while driving around Vaughan and Newmarket I looked around and jotted down the following spots in my handy notepad … a technician must have.

·              Food Service (Restaurants, Quick Serve Restaurants (QSRs), Bars, Institutional Kitchens, etc.)

·              Food and pharmaceutical processing and storage

·              Offices and Institutions

·              Schools and Daycares

·              Health Care Facilities

·              Industrial Plants

Food Facilities are unique, typically they follow GMP’s.

What are GMP’s or cGMP’s?

CGMP refers to the Current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations. The GMP requirements are ongoing measures designed to ensure an effective overall approach to product quality control and risk management. They do this by setting appropriate standards and practices for the manufacturing, packaging, labelling, and storing of goods. 

CGMPs provide systems that assure proper design, monitoring, and control of manufacturing processes and facilities. GMPs are a crucial link to avoiding adulteration and ensuring quality. The practices set a basic safety net of minimum facility sanitation practices to ensure goods are not indirectly contaminated. It also establishes a consistency that secures quality.

Adulteration = defined as intentionally or willingly degrading the quality of the food. Basically, the contamination of food.

Who can audit my facility?

I have provided a high-level list of the most common food safety and auditing bodies, both local and international. There are many more Toronto Facility Audits, but listed below are the most common.

Local Health Departments

Provincial and Federal Inspectors

American Institute of Baking (AIB)

BRC Global

FSSC 22000

NFC – Cook & Thurber

Primus GFS

SQF

Pro-Cert

CanadaGAP

Why hire a Pest Management Professional (PMP) for your facility?

In my opinion, it’s good to have these services provided by dedicated service technicians trained in pest management. We have the knowledge, insurance, the right equipment, and understand the rules and regulations. Our focus is ONLY pest management & pest prevention. Whereas maintenance staff are responsible for many job duties and not just pest management.

Many food plants use the services of various independent inspection services that provide a valuable and needed range of GMP and food safety audits to food-handling establishments of all types. Each auditing scheme has its own unique guidelines, a pest control company that specializes in commercial pest management will have the expertise to look after your facility.

Down to Business – What the heck are those black boxes around my facility?

One aspect of a proper pest prevention program is rodent control. Let’s start with a few basics on exterior rodent prevention – what should I expect for my facility?

Exterior rodent stations, or bait stations, are excellent tools to aid in both monitoring and controlling rodent pressure on the exterior of a facility. Rodenticide is the most associated monitoring and control tool used in exterior rodent stations.

There are some fantastic alternatives to rodent bait that can be used, depending on the facility’s specific regulatory needs, chemical use initiatives, like Organic Cert’s. As a trained pest control professional, it is vital to keep the food supply safe.

Rodenticides, when used correctly and on the exterior of the facility, provide a little risk to the interior food supply. Interior use of rodent bait is rarely a good option; the risk of contaminating the manufactured food is too great.

Rodents living outdoors around your building will eventually try to get inside, looking for warmth, food, water, and shelter. Warmth and basic needs to survive are located inside your facility! Exterior bait stations are an important tool as the first line of defence. Professional Exterior stations do exist. At GreenLeaf we install exteriors stations that look like hydro or cable boxes. Customers and employees usually don’t even know you have a rodent program at your facility.

GreenLeaf Pest Control only uses Tier #1 exterior bait stations that are designed to restrict access for children, pets, and wildlife. Our stations are secured and bolted to a block and locked with a proprietary key. The bait inside is also secured with a locking rod to ensure the bait does not come loose or get knocked out inadvertently. Every attempt is made to ensure safety and reduce risk and liability.

What does the technician inspect for when they perform the exterior rodent service visits?

First, the technician opens the station and scans the barcode. The electronic handheld device helps to record any feeding, pest activity and observations. This data is transparent to the client’s Q/A team.

The inside of the bait station should be reasonably clean. Plant material, droppings, dead rodents, debris from the bait needs to be swept and bagged for disposal.

If required, fresh new bait is threaded through the locking rod; it is important to secure the bait within the station.

It is critical that at every service the technician doesn’t just service the stations. After all, we/you are the pest detective. The GreenLeaf trained technician inspects for burrows along sidewalks, landscaping beds, ponds, etc. As well as look for other pest threats like wasps, ants, etc.

Document findings and discuss next steps with the client.

Liked what you read? Be sure to like, share, follow. Stay tuned for my next food safety blog. Our goal is for you to make an educated and informed decision when partnering with a Commercial Pest Management Company. Have any questions, give us a call at [phone] or book a phone consultation.

About the Author:

Daniel Mackie, the Quality Assurance Director at Greenleaf Pest Control, is a Toronto, Kitchener / Waterloo, Vaughan and GTA pest control expert. Daniel is well-known as an industry go-to guy, an innovator of safe, effective pest control solutions, and is a regular guest on HGTV. Mackie, along with business partner Sandy Costa, were the first pest control professionals in Canada to use detection dogs and thermal remediation to eradicate bed bugs. In his free time, he is an avid gardener and beekeeper.

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