Managing
Quality & Food Safety Risks
Where Risk Begins
Every year, contamination of food leads to foodborne illness outbreaks, threatening public health and the brand reputation of food manufacturers.
And the risk is growing. A CDC report shows a sharp rise in food contamination traced back to animal or environmental sources — an increase of nearly 50% over the past decade and underscoring the urgent need to reassess FMSA-compliant SOPs.
Understanding the source of these contaminations and how to mitigate them is essential to protecting food safety and your brand reputation from negative impact.
Rodents are a major disease vector, and whether they’re in a food processing facility or your food-grade warehouse, they increase the risk of product adulteration and contamination.
Bacteria and viruses transferred by rodents on food packaging and foods stored in warehouse settings can lead to potential foodborne illnesses when delivered to a retail food service or sales establishment. Warehouse employees are at risk from exposure, posing one of the biggest threats to food safety. These product adulterations often go undetected until they lead to serious issues, including:
- Rejected shipments
- Consumer complaints
- Failed safety audits
- Product recalls
- FDA 483 violations (public information)
- A facility shutdown
Rodents can slip into a warehouse undetected, take up residence and cause widespread damage. They’re known to carry dangerous bacteria like E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella, and even Hantavirus and Leptospirosis. Just one mouse can produce up to 3,000 microdroplets of urine and 125 fecal pellets containing these pathogens in a single day. Even tiny traces of rodent saliva can contaminate surfaces, packaging, food products, and ingredients.
Rodents are drawn to food warehouses in search of food, water, and shelter. They can enter through a variety of pathways, including gaps around doors and loading docks, utility lines, and even incoming shipments—making routine deliveries a potential risk. Other common entry points include:
- Structural cracks and crevices
- Gaps around pipes and utilities
- Poorly sealed floors and doors
- Drop ceilings
- Vents and ducts
- Incoming shipments
Examining Rodent Behavior
Nesting Habits
Rodents can survive in hard-to-reach spaces of a warehouse, including beneath sub-concrete floors, inside wall voids and drop-down ceilings, often nesting within pallets . They are seeking shelter, food and water. They will often line their nests with materials like shredded paper, insulation or packaging materials. Nesting materials and rodent droppings are often a telltale sign of rodent activity.
Why Warehouses?
Warehouses make a perfect home for rodents, as they provide shelter from the elements and from natural predators. Warehouses, and food storage facilities in particular, also offer rodents abundant food and enough water to survive. That’s why it’s critical for Quality Assurance (QA) managers to take rodent activity seriously – it poses a direct risk to food safety, public health, and the reputation of the brands they’re responsible for upholding.
Reasons for Concern
Rodent infestations can be a serious threat to your operation. Beyond the immediate food safety risks and potential for disease transmission, infestations are expensive and time consuming to resolve. They may lead to lost contracts, regulatory penalties and product recalls. Moreover, an illness outbreak tied to rodent infestation can cause massive damage to a brand’s reputation. This can lead to lost consumer trust and can impact the business long after the infestation has been resolved. Infestations also affect your workforce, creating an unhygienic environment that can hurt productivity and retention. Prevention isn’t optional — it’s essential.
Image source: CDC
“The goal in any facility is ‘zero mice’ … I tell people, ‘Don’t underestimate the situation because it’s a little mouse. It’s a big threat.’”
— Dr. Bobby Corrigan,
Research Scientist, Rodentologist and author of “Rodent Control: A Practical Guide for Pest Management Professionals.”
Preventing Rodent Activity &
The Risk of Foodborne Threats
Monitoring
Regular site inspections can help to ensure timely intervention by identifying rodent activity and assessing points conducive to entry. A combination of digital monitoring and well-trained licensed professionals can enhance this control method and support other preventative tactics.
Exclusion
Sealing common rodent entry points, including cracks and crevices, gaps or holes typically found in foundations, pipes or roofing is a proactive tactic that forms the backbone of any pest management plan. However, this exclusion should be partnered with other control methods, as rodents also can enter warehouses via trucks, pallets, boxes and other incoming materials.
Repellents
Products designed to emit an unpleasant sound or odor can discourage rodents from entering a facility in the first place. These repellents can be paired with traps and bait stations, but they aren’t guaranteed to impede all rodent activity.
Baiting
Rodenticides can attract and effectively control rodents present in warehouse settings. Adding these substances to baiting stations can be an inexpensive approach to preventing new infestations, but their effectiveness can vary based on rodent location and activity.
Trapping
Placing mechanical traps in areas where rodents are particularly active can be a cost-effective approach to managing pest populations. However, this tactic can achieve results slowly and rarely achieves complete eradication. Traps also pose safety hazards to unwary employees, and they require constant monitoring and maintenance from pest management professionals.
Reproductive Control
Contraceptive agents placed in bait stations can inhibit a rodent’s ability to reproduce. While fertility control is a more humane alternative to traditional traps, it does not remove the rodent from the facility, and there is a significant time lag between application of the contraceptive and any beneficial effects.
Fumigation
Fumigation is the most efficient and effective way to eradicate rodent populations in food warehouses or distribution centers. During the fumigation process, the treatment site is systematically sealed by a pest management professional. Upon distribution, the fumigant rapidly penetrates through cracks and hidden spaces, reaching all rodents for total eradication. Unlike other rodent control methods, which often take weeks or months to achieve beneficial results, fumigation treatments eliminate rodents in a matter of days, preventing avoidable contamination in an expedited manner.
*Disclaimer: Please follow all label directions
Which Method is
Best For My Warehouse?
Protecting food safety, public health and your brand’s reputation requires decisive action. When eliminating rodents, it’s important to understand the pros and cons of your treatment options.
When other control methods are not effectively eliminating the infestation, placing your facility at risk, fumigation treatments allow you to quickly eradicate rodent infestations in days — not weeks or months. Consider the following factors when vetting control methods for a QA or food safety program:
Traditional Control Methods
vs.
Fumigation
Lengthier Process
Can take weeks or months to control an infestation, allowing contamination to spread.
Speed
Rapid Eradication
Eliminates rodents in days, mitigating the extended risk of product adulteration.
Limited Reach
Can’t access hidden nesting sites and only works if rodents leave their hard-to-reach shelter(s).
Coverage
Total Coverage
Fumigation penetrates cracks and crevices, within walls, inside pallets and beneath subfloors to eliminate all rodents, regardless of location in the warehouse.
Ongoing Risk
Requires constant monitoring and maintenance, and re-infestation is an ongoing concern.
Level of Eradication
Complete Solution
Provides full eradication within the fumigated space.
Traditional Control Methods
vs.
Fumigation
Speed
Traditional Control Methods
Lengthier Process
Can take weeks or months to control an infestation, allowing contamination to spread.
vs.
Fumigation
Rapid Eradication
Eliminates rodents in days, mitigating the extended risk of product adulteration.
Coverage
Traditional Control Methods
Limited Reach
Can’t access hidden nesting sites and only works if rodents leave their hard-to-reach shelter(s).
vs.
Fumigation
Total Coverage
Fumigation penetrates cracks and crevices, within walls, inside pallets and beneath subfloors to eliminate all rodents, regardless of location in the warehouse.
Level of Eradication
Traditional Control Methods
Ongoing Risk
Requires constant monitoring and maintenance, and re-infestation is an ongoing concern.
vs.
Fumigation
Complete Solution
Provides full eradication within the fumigated space.
WHY FUMIGATE
Protect food safety & your brand reputation
When it comes to food safety, the longer rodents are present, the greater the risk of potential contamination and compromised brand reputation. Every day matters.
ProFume® gas fumigant, developed by Dow Chemical in collaboration with the USDA and partnering universities, is EPA-approved for use around food and leaves no hard surface residue – see label for list of approved uses.
ProFume is registered in all 50 states and has been relied upon by industry leaders for more than 20 years.
The Fumigation Process
When rodent activity threatens your facility, fumigation provides an effective solution to completely eradicate infestations. This process is carefully managed by licensed fumigators to ensure thorough treatment and minimal disruption.
Each case is unique depending on specifics of your facility, target pests and needs. Talk with your pest control provider to figure out the right fumigation plan with ProFume.
Are You Factoring Fumigation into
Your Risk Mitigation Plan?
QA managers set strict specifications to protect food safety and quality, and rodent control should play a critical role in their plans. With ProFume, rodents have nowhere to hide. As an essential component of integrated pest management plans, fumigation treatments with ProFume eliminate infestations quickly and effectively, enabling facility operations to resume without delay.
Contact PMP / licensed fumigator about ProFume
QA managers play a critical role in setting specifications to protect food safety and quality, and the importance of rodent control should not be underestimated.
Leading commercial pest professionals serving food processors and warehouses recommend using ProFume as part of an integrated pest management plan. To keep your food safety program FSMA compliant and ensure the consistent availability of high-quality products for your customers, contact your pest management professional to learn more about ProFume and the benefits of a customized fumigation plan.
