ABOUT THE SURVEY

Sponsored by Senestech, QA’s 2020 State of the Market: Rodent Control in Food Facilities survey was conducted by Readex Research, a privately held research firm based in Stillwater, Minn. The March 2020 survey sample of food processing managers and executives was systematically selected from the circulation file of Quality Assurance & Food Safety (QA). Data was collected from 156 recipients of QA’s digital magazine and/or e-newsletter at unique U.S. company locations. Of these, 121 work for a company with at least one food facility and are the basis of this report. The margin of error for percentages is ±8.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The margin of error for percentages based on smaller sample sizes will be larger. Specific results may not add up to 100% due to rounding or respondents’ ability to select multiple responses.

The survey was conducted in early to mid-March — the same time that COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization and US states and cities began to close schools and non-essential businesses due to the pandemic. Those closures or related business drawdowns, particularly of restaurants and other food businesses, have been shown to have had some impact on rodent activity. So, some facilities’ focus on rodent control and methods may have changed and/or increased as businesses reopened.

SURVEY RESPONDENTS