How to prevent closure of your food business
To ensure the health and safety of the public, the Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations 2013 requires food premises to be closed when an imminent health hazard is identified. This includes where pest activity (such as mice or cockroaches) has been found in your business and cannot be immediately corrected.
A decision to formally close your business will depend on the severity of the infestation and the actions you are taking to protect food from contamination.
Where a decision has been made to formally close your food business a notice will be placed for display at the premises and you will be required to close your business immediately. The Council shall then make an application to the Magistrates court for a court order to keep the premises closed until the risk has been removed.
A food business operator may also choose to close voluntarily. When an operator voluntarily closes their own food premises, due to an imminent risk of injury to health, they are protecting the health and safety of the public, while giving themselves time to correct the issue. A Hygiene Emergency Prohibition notice will not be posted for display on the premises where a Food business operator takes action voluntarily.
Continuing to open and trade without taking additional precautions to protect foods from contamination and consumers from illness is not an option.
This guidance sheet aims to give you some general advice about what you need to do in order to manage and control pests. It also gives you guidance on what you need to clean, and how, so that the spread of bacteria carried by the pests to food and work surfaces can be prevented.
Some pests, like cockroaches, are difficult to remove completely. All pests are likely to remain in place or return as long as they have what they need to survive available.
Getting a pest problem under control takes time and you will need to do lots of different things to reduce the problem as well as show that it is under control.
As a minimum there are 4 things you need to consider.
1. Exclusion
- Look for evidence such as droppings, urine, damaged packaging, grease smears or dead carcasses
- Check door frames for gaps or signs of light coming through.
- Use physical barriers, such as plastic strips and bristle strips, on door edges and windows. A small gap is all some pests need to get inside or hide in.
- Look behind and underneath equipment for any holes in the walls or floor.
- Prevent entry to the inside of your building and solidly block up gaps or holes, such as around pipes.
- Do not use paper or soft materials (like bubble wrap) or expandable foam that can be chewed through.
2. Remove food sources
- Protect food: store things off the floor and inside clean, pest-proof containers
- Remove spilt foods
- Remove water sources: stop any leaks from pipes or equipment.
- Remove shelter: get rid of unused equipment and deny pests places to hide.
- Throw away affected food and keep your bin area clean.
Watch the Food Standards Agency coaching video on pest checks.
3. Cleaning and disinfection
- Cleaning thoroughly means getting rid of any ingrained dirt. You will need to clean behind and under equipment and at the backs of shelves to help control your pest problem.
- You may need to scrape old dirt away from hard to reach areas, such as between floors and walls.
- All food preparation surfaces and hand contact surfaces (like fridge door handles) need to be disinfected in order to kill bacteria that can be spread by pests.
- The products you use must say they can be used in a kitchen or are ‘food safe’
- Detergents and degreasers get rid of dirt and grease but do not kill bacteria. They cannot be used in isolation. They are good at getting walls and shelves clean.
- Use disinfectants or anti-bacterial sprays on surfaces which come into contact with food or peoples’ hands but make sure you use them on surfaces that aren’t very dirty.
- Sanitisers are chemicals that will both clean (like a detergent) and kill bacteria (like a disinfectant).
Watch the Food Standards Agency coaching video on cleaning effectively.
Further information can be found on the Food Standards Agency website.
4. Treatment
- Chemicals and poisons are only effective in helping to control pests when combined with other measures. Having a clean and tidy premises will help you get on top of a problem more quickly.
- Chemicals and poisons must always be used with care in a food business.
- You are recommended to set up a regular treatment programme with a company that has a good reputation.
- We recommend you use a company that is a member of a trade association like the British Pest Control Association (BPCA) or the National Pest Technicians Association (NPTA). You should get a written report from any company that you use and should make sure you follow their advice.
- Try not to move any bait boxes from where they have been put.
Make sure you know what the pest contractor is doing. As the food business operator it is still your responsibility to manage pests in your business not the pest contractor.
Further advice
CIEH food industry pest guides
Procedures Sector Specific - Urban Pests Book
A-Z of Pests
Detailed advice about different types of pests can be found here:
A to Z of Pests | Pest Advice, Support and Guidance from BPCA.
Additional note: glue boards
Legislation is currently going through parliament regarding the use of glue boards. Anyone using glue boards should refer to the BCPA code of practice.
Further advice
For further advice send us a food safety query.