World Pest Day on June 6 is a multinational event created to raise the status of the pest management industry among the general public. The National Pest Management Association is joining the Federation of Asian & Oceania Pest Managements Association (FAOPMA), Chinese Pest Control Association and the Confederation of European Pest Management Associations (CEPA), as well as pest management professionals across the globe in support of this event.
How important is pest management in protecting the world’s food supply? Research from North Carolina State University stated:
“The economic impact of insects is measured not only by the market value of products they destroy and the cost of damage they inflict but also by the money and resources expended on prevention and control of pest outbreaks.”
- Insects consume or destroy around 10 percent of gross national product in large, industrialized nations and up to 25 percent of gross national product in some developing countries.
Recently, the World Economic Forum presented a report on reducing food waste that offered these stunning statistics:
- One-third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted along the food value chain, with a direct economic cost of USD750 billion per year.
- Approximately half of this volume (54 percent) is lost in upstream processes including agricultural production (a third of the total alone) and post-harvest handling and storage; the other half (46 percent) is wasted in downstream activities such as processing, distribution, and consumption.
What pests are leading threats to food safety? The most wanted list includes rodents, birds, cockroaches, flies and stored product pests.
According to researchers at the University of California Integrated Pest Management Program, rodents eat or spoil 20 percent of the world’s food supply due to contamination with their urine and feces.
Stored product pests such as the Indian meal moth, warehouse and cigarette beetle, and the granary weevil are responsible for 10 percent of food spoilage globally.
While food contamination can occur at any time during its production, unsanitary conditions largely contribute to the proliferation of rodents and other pests in facilities and increase the risk of food spoilage.
This is why the development and execution of comprehensive pest control and exclusion programs – based on integrated pest management principles – are essential to the operation of food processing, storage, transportation and service facilities.
The professionals at Sprague can help you create a program that delivers on its promise to protect your facility, products and customers from food-borne diseases brought on by pests.