[Ice Chips]

A. This is a very common question that I’m often asked during inspections and training sessions. There are a number of reasons why you should not use insecticides purchased at local stores in your food facility. Many states mandate that pesticide applications made in food plants or any commercial facility can only be done by a state certified applicator. Even if your state does not have this requirement, you need to consider the documentation requirements, potential issues with someone misusing these products, storage requirements, and liabilities your insurance company is not willing to accept.

If, after all of this, you want to proceed, then at a minimum, you will have to research your state regulations and obtain pesticide training for a select individual. You will have to provide secured limited access storage and spill control, and meet any other EPA requirements for the material. All aspects of documentation from labels, Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), application records, disposal method, training files, etc. will need to be maintained.

The bottom line is that keeping insecticides on site and having them applied by non-trained or non-certified individuals is not a good idea and in most cases illegal. I would prefer to see better communication with your IPM contractor to make sure this issue is noted on the facility assessment. Then the contractor can put the monitoring and treatment of these items into their IPM program for the plant. If this is done properly there should be no need for anyone in the facility to keep insecticides for their use at the plant. AIB

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There are a number of reasons why you should not use insecticides purchased at local stores in your food facility. Many states mandate that pesticide applications made in food plants or any commercial facility can only be done by a state certified applicator. Even if your state does not have this requirement, you need to consider the documentation requirements, potential issues with someone misusing these products, storage requirements, and liabilities your insurance company is not willing to accept.