Necessity of Pest Control Annual Assessment

Hi all,

I was just going through documentation I will need for my SQF Desk Audit and saw that there was a category for "Pest Control Annual Assessment" - My Pest Control Tech said that it's not something they often do, thus I never got one. Is it a necessity to have this done? He told me he would reassess their techniques if we had any issues, but we haven't thus far.

Thanks!

~Wayne

an annual assessment is basically reviewing the trend analysis and seeing if there is a peak in rodents at any time of the year. If there is, it might be that in the summer or winter you need a different pest control solution, and if it is under control , that means that the technique that is currently in place, is sufficient and you can continue. it should be a fairly simple procedure.

I also found that issue at our plant. We had the trend reports in a book from our contract pest control, but there was no annual assessment. However, it's an easy thing to solve, as sussykraus said.

In our case, we scheduled a meeting with our pest guy at the end of the year to go over trends, trap effectiveness, etc. Then we simply created and added a document that lists information such as what was discussed, improvement suggestions for the upcoming year and such, and had all parties sign off on it before adding it to the pest control binder. That's what we showed our auditor in January, and it was deemed acceptable. Although, if the pest guy does suggest changes for improvement, you'd want to treat it as a corrective action and document it.

-Christina

Thank you both!

It seems I do have the criteria for this. I just need to put it into a document form. Sounds great!

Interestingly enough, what you said - "Pest Control Annual Assessment" is not a requirement of SQF, it is not in the code.  Good idea, but not mandatory.

Per the AIB International standard from 2017, CHANGE Document, an assessment is required "AT LEAST ANNUALLY."

See "4.2.1.1 Critical" Requirement.