The Pest Sighting in the Dry Store
During a routine opening check at a bakery, the supervisor finds mouse droppings on a shelf of bagged flour in the dry store and gnaw marks on the corner of one 25 kg bag. The dry store door has a 2 cm gap at the bottom, and a delivery of flour arrived yesterday from a supplier whose van was parked with its rear doors open for 20 minutes. The bakery has a pest-control contract with quarterly visits; the last visit was six weeks ago and no issues were recorded. The supervisor wants to brush the droppings off the shelf, bag the affected flour for use 'because it's going to be baked anyway', and call the pest controller at the next scheduled visit.
1. Evaluate the supervisor's three proposed actions and state what should happen instead.
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1. Brushing droppings off the shelf: inadequate. Droppings and urine carry Salmonella, E. coli, and other pathogens; brushing spreads contamination. The shelf and surrounding area must be cleaned and then disinfected with a product effective against the risk, following the label contact time, and hands washed afterwards. Brushing dry also aerosolises contamination.
2. Using the gnawed flour 'because it will be baked': not acceptable. Rodents urinate and defecate where they feed, and gnawed bags allow contamination throughout the contents, not just at the bite. Baking may kill bacteria but does not remove the physical contamination (droppings, hair, gnawed debris) or the risk from any toxins. The affected bag and any adjacent open or damaged bags must be discarded and recorded as waste.
3. Waiting for the quarterly visit: too slow. An active infestation is a legal and safety issue and requires immediate action. The pest controller should be called out now, and the contract reviewed - quarterly visits with no monitoring between them have failed to detect this.
Instead: segregate and discard affected stock, clean and disinfect the store, block the door gap, call the pest controller, and record everything.
2. Identify the likely entry routes and the premises controls that need correcting.
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Likely entry routes:
- The 2 cm gap under the dry store door - mice can pass through gaps of about 6 mm.
- The delivery: the supplier's van with open rear doors for 20 minutes is a plausible route for rodents to enter the load or the vehicle, and the flour arrived the day before the droppings were found.
- Other routes to check: pipe penetrations, wall/floor junctions, roof spaces, and the loading bay.
Premises controls to correct:
- Fit a door brush or threshold strip to close the gap; check all external doors and windows.
- Inspect deliveries on arrival - reject damaged or gnawed bags, and require suppliers to keep vehicle doors closed when not loading.
- Store flour off the floor on racks with a gap from the wall so the area can be inspected and cleaned.
- Use a documented pest-monitoring scheme: bait stations and/or traps at entry points, checked at a defined frequency (e.g. weekly) with records, not just quarterly contractor visits.
- Keep the dry store clean, dry, and free of spilled flour, and rotate stock (first in, first out) so bags are not left undisturbed for long periods.
3. What records should be created or updated, and why do they matter if an environmental health officer visits?
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Records to create/update:
- Pest-control log: date, location, evidence found, action taken, contractor call-out date and findings.
- Cleaning and disinfection record for the dry store.
- Waste record for the discarded flour (quantity, reason, date, signature).
- Supplier/delivery record noting the damaged bag and any rejection.
- Maintenance record for the door gap repair.
- Staff briefing/training record.
Why they matter: under food law the business must demonstrate due diligence - that it has identified hazards and put controls in place. An EHO will ask to see the pest-control records, cleaning records, and evidence that corrective action was taken. Gaps in the records (e.g. six weeks with no monitoring, no record of the infestation response) suggest the HACCP plan is not being followed. Good records show the problem was detected and corrected; missing records suggest it was ignored.