The food industry is one of the most important industries for utilising pest control. While pests can negatively affect most businesses, food businesses are at the highest risk. Pests are attracted to food sources, so a food business would be the perfect place for them to set up shop!

In this guide, we have compiled a list of different ways in which pest control is important to a food business:

Food Quality

When running a food business, you want to ensure that the food you are providing tastes good and is high quality. The last thing you want is for something to affect this.

Pests in a food preparation environment can easily adversely affect the quality of the food you are producing. They can contaminate food stuffs directly by pieces of them ending up in the end product or indirectly by moving from, for example, raw meat to cooked food. If they are contaminating food and this will need to be replaced and can potentially pose a risk to the health of your customers and your business’ reputation.

The quality of food is highly important to a food business and pests will be detrimental to this. This is why pest control is important when running a food business. Should you find yourself with an unwelcome infestation, pest control will deal with it, advise on how to stop it happening again and allow you to carry on producing good quality food. 

Legal Reasons

Food quality is not the only reason to utilize pest control. There are organisations within the UK who monitor the quality of food and preparation in your food establishments. 

The Food Standards Agency has the power to fine and even shut down businesses who do not meet the required quality of food and food preparation.

The Food Hygiene Rating which is often displayed in the windows of food businesses also takes pest control into account. People will be disinclined to enter an establishment which has a poor food hygiene rating.

Ensuring your business has access to pest control will allow you to continue trading without worrying about having your business face legal repercussions.

Employee Satisfaction

All businesses rely on their employees, and the best businesses have good employee satisfaction. 

If your employees are having to work in a pest infested environment they are not going to be productive, nor are they likely to want to stay. There is also a possibility that the pests could be carrying diseases, which could put your workforce out of order! 

Ensuring that you have good pest control means that the working environment of your business will be far more healthy and enjoyable and therefore more productive.

Customer Satisfaction

The key to a good business is customer satisfaction. You want your customers to enjoy their dining experience so that they will want to tell their friends and come back. 

The sight of a cockroach or the glimpse of a rat tail would make the customer’s experience awful! No one wants to eat somewhere or buy from a place with an insect or rat infestation.

Having a pest problem would not encourage customers to return, in fact it would actively discourage it. The dissatisfied customers may also tell their friends through word of mouth or post damning reviews about your business online. All of this would negatively affect your business.

Pest control would guarantee a more satisfactory experience for your customers. They would be more inclined to return and bring others with them, increasing your sales and generating positive feedback.

If you have a food business and need quick action on a pest problem, please don’t hesitate to contact us either by email or by calling us on 01914 062 400.