Hello everyone. I am new to the Bakery world. The Bakery I am working at recently implemented a pest control program with a 3rd party company. They have interior fly traps, interior catch traps, and exterior rodent bait stations. I was surprised to learn that there is no monitoring for moths or bettles. With raw material storage and accumulation in the production area, wouldn't this be necessary? Where can I find more information about the pests of concern in a bakery? I would like to share
Note - the bakery is not currently AIB inspected or certified but this is something we are working towards. Thank you!
A lot depends on the ingredients used, the construction of the facility and the robustness of the Sanitation program.
If you have a lot of ingredients sitting around for a long period of time, and you see evidence of Indian Meal Moths, for example, or if you have a bunch of flour sitting in your overheads, and have seen evidence of Confused Flour Beetles, certainly you can have your PCO put out monitoring stations.
But, you already know there is a problem. Monitoring stations are not going to help until you remove the infestation. After that, monitors would be in order.
On the other hand, if there has been no evidence of these pests, and you just want to "make sure", feel free to monitor for the insects you might not have.
That being said, ILT's, catch traps and bait stations are pretty much industry standard.
You have to have a really good sanitation program to prevent the other things.
Marshall