The audit is not looking for the pest
In food-industry audits, the most common non-conformity around pest control is not that a pest was found, but that the programme’s operation cannot be proven: there is no site plan, past records are missing, or there is no data series showing that treatments had an effect.
Seen this way, pest control is a documentation task with a technical execution component — not the other way round.
What exactly does an audit expect from pest control documentation? We cover this in our guide to HACCP pest control requirements.
What the pest control file must contain
- A written pest control programme — recording the zones treated, the technology and the frequency
- A site plan with numbered monitoring and bait points
- Inspection records, dated, going back
- Catch data and trend summaries by zone
- Safety data sheets for every product used
- Copies of authorisations — for the products and for the business
- A service contract and a defined point of contact
A zoned approach
A plant is not a uniform environment. Raw-material intake, the production floor, packaging, finished goods storage and staff facilities carry different risk levels and allow different equipment.
In high-risk, food-contact zones, toxic bait is typically not applicable. Here, mechanical traps, glue-board monitors and UV insect traps do the work.
On the perimeter — the building’s outer line — lockable bait stations provide protection before a rodent can get in.
This layering is what an audit calls “perimeter protection.”
Scheduling without stopping production
Treatments are scheduled for shift breaks, weekends or planned maintenance windows. We choose the technology so that the re-entry interval fits inside the window, and surfaces are usable again before production restarts.
Our references in the sector
Our partners in the sector include food and beverage plants, feed mixers, mills and fast-food chains — among them Sano-Modern Takarmányozás Kft., Reckitt Benckiser Kft. and TB. One Kft., which operates McDonald’s restaurants.