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BRC chapter 4.13.8 "in depth pest control surveys"

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Conny T

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 10:29 AM

Does anyone know what this demand really means - what shall be done by this to please auditor :biggrin:



Bunny

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Posted 21 December 2011 - 08:45 PM

Does anyone know what this demand really means - what shall be done by this to please auditor :biggrin:


That`s one to put the cat amongst the pigeons, especially for those auditors in the uk.

In fairness the ones I have met did have a rudimentary understanding of pest control and what they think to expect but they are not pest controllers and not expected to know the difference in a good inspection and a poor one IMO.

I would like to think that this is the first step in moving the PC industry forward, demands by the likes of BRC do encourage innovation and improvement in general standards from the ground up.

But I suspect that demand refers to "field biologist" inspection and not technicians in the field

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"If you think it is expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur."
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Conny T

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Posted 22 December 2011 - 06:50 AM

Thanks for reply. Bunny :smile:

I guess you are right, that Field biologist are wanted to fullfill the demand. Well I find out in March to BRC-audit



Madam A. D-tor

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Posted 22 December 2011 - 07:07 AM

Does anyone know what this demand really means - what shall be done by this to please auditor :biggrin:


I do not know what is the international name for such, so I will try to explain in a lot of words ;^)

If you have a pest controller company hired, they mostly also offer some kind of hygiene/building inspection. Frequencies are annual, twice a year and sometimes even 4 times a year.
During such inspection, some one else then the regular pest controller comes to you company and conduct an inspection. This inspections does not include the baits and traps themselves but is focussed on building, work hygiene, etc. Focus is on places were pests can integrate the site, and were housing of insects is possible. This inspection will result in advice/actions on prevention and control. These action should be followed by the organisation. These inspections are called technical inspection on the site of Rentokil and Anticimex.

What do you think, can this be done by the organisation itself?

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Madam A. D-tor

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Conny T

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Posted 22 December 2011 - 10:53 AM

I do not know what is the international name for such, so I will try to explain in a lot of words ;^)

If you have a pest controller company hired, they mostly also offer some kind of hygiene/building inspection. Frequencies are annual, twice a year and sometimes even 4 times a year.
During such inspection, some one else then the regular pest controller comes to you company and conduct an inspection. This inspections does not include the baits and traps themselves but is focussed on building, work hygiene, etc. Focus is on places were pests can integrate the site, and were housing of insects is possible. This inspection will result in advice/actions on prevention and control. These action should be followed by the organisation. These inspections are called technical inspection on the site of Rentokil and Anticimex.

What do you think, can this be done by the organisation itself?


Thankey very much for the explanation - helped a lot. The new BRC for food ver. 6 demands such an technical inspection 4 times a year - we have ordinary pest control inspections 6 times a year (in DK some firms have inspections each month). I think that I will talk to Rentokil about having such a technical inspection with me by their side and learning....As we do not have og have had any problems with pests at all since 1998 (plant started) I think I would try to challenge this demand.


Madam A. D-tor

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Posted 23 December 2011 - 12:09 PM

Maybe do it once a year by Rentokil and be present with the inspection. See what the inspector is looking for.
Then perforn it 3 times a year your self. Maybe you can include it in your hygiene-site-inspection. What is also in BRC issue 6. Make sure it is recognisable. This mean document some "in depth pest control inspections"-issues in your hygiene-site-inspection checklist.

Please let us know, what was the result after the audit you challenged this.


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Madam A. D-tor

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Posted 16 February 2012 - 03:13 PM

The standard says based on risk but typicaly 4 times a year, so depending on your location, size of the building operation, climate and what type of product you produce would all need to be taken into consideration before setting the frequency, so perform a risk assessment and go from there.



GMO

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Posted 16 February 2012 - 09:48 PM

I've never been on a site which has had a field biologist inspection less than 4 times a year, 4 times a year, IME is really typical! A field biologist generally is more knowledgable regarding pest species and prevention than a technologist (and they have years of experience) so generally I would argue that it would be very difficult to achieve in house without a considerable level of experience. I'm thinking a big multi site company who can afford to employ several pest control staff, however, I have never worked in a company like this, nearly all engage the services of contractors.

I would suggest it would be easier to bring the regular technician inspections in house and then contract the biologist inspections.



Madam A. D-tor

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Posted 23 February 2012 - 07:41 AM

I've never been on a site which has had a field biologist inspection less than 4 times a year, 4 times a year, IME is really typical! A field biologist generally is more knowledgable regarding pest species and prevention than a technologist


Hello GMO,

Things are likely very different here.
I have to say that I only come in few companies(<10) that contracted pest controller to perform these inspection annually and I know only one company that has performed it 4 times a year. This company stopped with this high frequency, because they were not able to solve the action ithin the 3 months time frame.

Let me tel you first, that i come only in 'wet' industry: meat, meat production, fish, fish production, ready to eat meals/salads, snacks, canned pet food, produce and
prepared fruits/vegetables. I have no knowledge/experience from dry food companies. Maybe this make the difference.

I am also not quite sure what you mean by field biologist inspection. I suppose it is, what I have described in a previous post in this thread.
In general the companies I visit have a contracted pest controller (I have no customers wich employs onw pest controller). The contracted pest controller conducts 8 to 12 times a year an inspection. Follow ups are done if needed. Circa 40% of my customers contract the pest controller to do a hygiene inspection annually. If no infestation occurres. I do not see the need to conduct such an inspection 4 times a year. Esspecially when most organisations are not doing this at all at the moment and do not have any problems.

So, rather we are talking about different inspections or we are operating in different industries or we just have different opinions/experience about this issue.
I am really interested to hear from other members in other regions how pest control inspections and survey requirements are filled and if this is sufficient.

Kind Regards,

Madam A. D-tor

Madam A. D-tor

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Posted 23 February 2012 - 08:56 AM

Dear GMO,

I have just read another thread about this requirement: http://www.ifsqn.com...-expert-survey/ and I am now concluding that this is indeed a specific Britisch thing, which is not applied as such in other parts of the world.
I am sorry for my harsh words in above post.


Kind Regards,

Madam A. D-tor

GMO

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Posted 23 February 2012 - 09:07 AM

I would think as with anything on BRC, if your frequency is less often, you would have to justify it by risk assessment. I have yet to have a field biologist inspection though fail to find some proofing / pest or hygiene issue that I or the normal pest inspector have missed. Until then I'll stick with the 4 times a year.

Perhaps you could argue if you do have a quarterly field biologist inspection you could then reduce the technologist visits though. We have 8 technologist visits a year, 2 per quarter then the field biologist comes as the 3rd visit per quarter.



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Posted 27 March 2012 - 07:17 PM

Ah - 4:3:18...and so it goes on.

Just had an auditor tell us that the REVIEW is the critical part of this. This needed to be an undefined combination of a commentary on the trend analysis over the past 3 months, plus a minuted review of the pest control activity over the past three months.

Mind you, this was an auditor who also told us that he expected an 8-12 page report on a site that has one process line, is the cleanest site I have in my portfolio, and has not had a pest problem apart from a mouse that ran in through a door for a few years.

I struggle to get two pages of pest related items out of the inspection!

In general, the interpetation seems to be Field Biologist inspections. However, the review bit may mean more needs to be done.



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Posted 29 March 2012 - 07:12 AM

And now BRC-audit is finished - auditor did recognise our pest-surveys and trends but didn`t go into the field biologist-question as something else came along and it was forgotten.

I now have had visit of an field biologist and learned a bit about mouses and rats - 3 small changes by roofing (small holes which mouses could use to enter our ceiling). I asked if they would consider having a course and hope they will so that I could learn more of the behaviour of pests. But I think that my risk analysis will end out in having visit once a year as we never have had pests in our traps - inside or outside.



GMO

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Posted 29 March 2012 - 07:17 AM

I think all of this will depend greatly on the competence and training of your pest contractor technologists. I find that biologists find different pest risks, they advise more on housekeeping and risks and so help with prevention not just finding issues (our technologists do that but to a lesser degree). Our biologist also does machinery inspections too. If you get all of that from your technologist then fine, but I suspect most sites don't. For example, a 'typical' pest inspection will take approx 4 hours on our small site but a biologist inspection will take the whole day (and we have CCTV in the canteen so I know she's not slacking off...)



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Posted 25 April 2012 - 09:43 PM

Just had a client given a non-con on this because the REVIEW was not specified as part of the technical inspection. This is open to serious differences in interpretation. I would (and did) argue that each technical inspection is a review of what has happened since the last one, especially with trend analysis in place. However, this auditor insisted that a management review was required.

Happily, this is the only instance of this I have so far experienced, but I expect this clause to result in aome variances across our portfolio of clients.



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Posted 07 June 2012 - 11:55 PM

Does anyone know what the qualification typically are for a field biologist? sorry if this piggy backs. Remove if needed.


Edited by Bets, 07 June 2012 - 11:56 PM.




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