Keeping Pests Out of a Restaurant

Dead cockroach on a restaurant linen

A pest infestation is pretty much every restaurant owner’s worst nightmare, and it’s not hard to understand why. Running a restaurant is an unbelievable amount of work. It combines all the trials and tribulations of running a business, and adds food preparation and customer service besides. Imagine losing all that blood, sweat, and tears because of a bug!

Unfortunately, pest infestations are one nightmare that’s all-too-real. All kinds of pests are especially attracted to restaurants. They’ll do whatever it takes to get at the food and shelter waiting for them inside. Keeping them out is just one more important job a restaurant has to do. Luckily, it’s not as hard as you’d think–and certainly not as hard as many other aspects of restaurant management. By keeping these four tips in mind, you’ll go a long way toward keeping your restaurant pest-free*:

Watch the Garbage

manage your restaurant's garbage carefullyGarbage management is probably the single most important way restaurants can prevent pest infestations. Restaurants have more garbage to worry about than just about anywhere else. Not only do you have your kitchen’s garbage, but you have to manage your customer’s, as well. When food spoils, the smell and liquids it produces attract pests like nothing else. Flies, moths, roaches, and even rodents all flock to the smells of rotting food.

Making sure pests can’t smell rotting or spoiled food is your top priority. Pay careful attention to where all your garbage ends up. All solid garbage (food, containers, etc.) should go into sealable, airtight plastic bags. Throw these bags out at least once a day, and ideally twice. Be especially careful with liquid waste, such as grease. Never pour grease into drains or let it collect in the garbage. Rinse out all garbage bins and dumpsters at least once a month.

Clean the Drains

Clean your restaurant's drains regularlyIt’s all-too-easy to depend on your drains, especially in the hectic restaurant world. You just pour the whatever-it-is down the drain and move on to your next task. The whatever-it-is is gone, and you can keep working! It’s perfect, right? Unfortunately, that’s not really how it works. The stuff you pour down the drain often stays in the drain, where it can rot, congeal, or build up. Before long, you could have a nasty clog–or worse.

All the gunk that builds up in your drain does just cause clogs, either. It can also provide a suitable and consistent source of food for pests. Drain flies and all kinds of other frustrating pests are attracted to drain gunk of all kinds. Some types of drain fly even lay eggs inside or near drains, which makes them a long-term problem. You should have your drains professionally cleaned once a season, or whenever you notice a problem.

Mind the Gaps

Make sure your restaurant's entrances seal properlyUnfortunately, this is another situation where restaurants are at a disadvantage. Think about how many doors and windows your restaurant has. There’s the front entrance for sure, a back entrance, probably a supply entrance, any emergency exits, and more. Pests can use these entrances, too. Then there are the restaurant-specific access points to worry about. Pests can come down ventilation just as easily as smoke and food smells can escape.

Try to figure out where pests could get in. Start by examining thresholds. Make sure all your doors seal properly and snugly. Replace any damaged sealant or weatherstripping immediately. Look for cracks and gaps near window and door frames, and feel for drafts. Remember: some bugs only need the tiniest gap to get in, so you have to be thorough. Check the perimeter from the outside and the inside. Use caulk to fill in gaps. Make sure all your vent systems have appropriate grating and screens.

Clean Spills

Keep an eye out for hidden spills or leaks in your restaurantThis probably seems obvious to you, but spills can be tricky. We’re not just talking about the ones out on the dining floor. We’re talking about the spills that can go overlooked. The tiny leaks in the employee bathroom. The condensation pooling in the corner of the freezer or outside by the HVAC. The grease ring around the floor drain in the kitchen. Pests don’t need much moisture to survive, and they’ll use whatever you give them.

Liquid spills are a particularly big deal for pests, because many bugs lay eggs in liquid. If you think a fly infestation is tough to deal with now, try a multi-generation infestation. To prevent a nightmare like that, you have to become a spill-eliminating machine. Figure out where moisture tends to build up and dry it out as frequently and completely as possible. Keep an especially close eye on customer’s sugary drinks.

 

Running any business is tough work, but running a restaurant is a whole new level. If you’ve made it this far, there’s no way a few pests are going to be your downfall. As long as you and your team follow these tips and work together, you’ll keep the pests at bay.

If ever things are getting out of hand and you need a little help, you can always call Griffin. We’re always ready to help you reclaim your business as effectively and discretely as possible. Keep fighting the good fight!

Fending Off Fruit Flies: A How-To Guide

Fending off Fruit Flies

Fruit flies are a perfect storm of small, fast, persistent, and hardy. They love to creep into your kitchen and make their home on overripe fruit, unwashed dishes, and similar sweet places. Nobody wants bugs in their banana bread!

That’s why we put together this list of five easy fruit fly prevention practices. Following these easy steps will help make sure those annoying bugs don’t make your home their home.‍
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Keep rotten fruit out of your home

This is the most obvious answer to the question, “How can I prevent fruit flies?” Fruit flies, unsurprisingly, love rotting fruit. It’s what they most enjoy eating and it’s the reason they have the name they do. Any fruit that is past ripe should be cleaned up, bagged up, and taken out.

Make sure your drains and garbage disposal are free of food waste

Fruit flies love food waste, and drains and garbage disposals are popular places for food build-up to occur. Remove their potential food source by maintaining their cleanliness. Slow drains are usually a sign that there’s a clog or build-up.

In many cases, that clog or build-up is made up of the sort of organic materials fruit flies love. Pouring boiling water down problem drains can help loosen up these clogs, but if they’re still problematic afterwards, it’s best to call a professional and have them cleaned.

Clean out your recycling and garbage bins

When you drink a canned beverage and then throw it in the recycling, it’s never completely empty. There are always a few drops left. If your recycling bin isn’t lined with a bag, those few drops can build up. When they do, they’ll attract fruit flies.

Using trash bags in your recycling bin is one way to help prevent this. You should also regularly wipe and clean out all bins so that there isn’t a chance for icky sticky sweetness to collect. Cleaning your bins will be a big step toward keeping fruit flies away from your home or business.

Rinse dishes and cups as soon as you’re done using them

Do you see a theme with all our suggestions? Staying on top of cleaning food waste is the number one defense against fruit flies.

That extends from drains to bins to your dishes themselves. Never leave half-empty cups sitting around, and rinse your dishes before setting them in the sink to keep pests away.

Replace any old sponges or mops

Fruit flies are kind of gross. They’ll live in whatever filth they can find, as long as there’s a little sugar or moisture nearby. We recommend replacing the sponges you use for washing dishes in your kitchen at least bi-monthly, because these sponges are another place where their preferred food waste can hide.

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Even if you try your best, sometimes things don’t go your way. If fruit flies have moved in despite your best efforts, you can call on the experts at Griffin Pest to get them taken care of quickly and permanently.

Food Safety: Making the Grade With Third-Party Audits

Food Safety – Pest-free product

The damage pests can do to a food processing company’s products, reputation and bottom line cannot be simply dismissed as the cost of doing business. With the threat of possible food contamination and transmission of dangerous bacteria including E. coli, listeria or salmonella, pest management is a vital part of a food processing facility’s operation.

The most important item on a food processing facility’s checklist is successfully passing a third-party audit of your facility. If a facility fails an audit it can mean production shut downs, possible product recalls, fines and citations, damage to the brand, and lost revenue.

What are the missteps that cause facilities to be written up or fail an audit? The British Retail Consortium (BRC), a food safety and quality certification program, audited more than 17,000 facilities and identified the most common failing as documentation.

Almost 20% of the sites audited in 2014 by BRC had nonconformities in documentation of cleaning procedures. The other top 10 infractions and the percentage of plants with deficiencies are as follows:

  1. Documentation of cleaning procedures (18%)
  2. Properly maintained doors & docks (14%)
  3. Processes for control of chemicals (12%)
  4. Proper design & placement of equipment (12%)
  5. Documented glass/brittle material handling (12%)
  6. Adequate raw-material identification (11%)
  7. Proper wall maintenance (10%)
  8. Up-to-date document control system (10%)
  9. Properly maintained ceilings & overheads (9%)
  10. Proper storage of finished goods (9%)

As the BRC study revealed documentation is the most common deficiency leading to a failed audit. The documentation provided by a pest management professional will be closely scrutinized by regulators and auditors.

If there is a pest incident or failure the documentation needs to show that the facility and their pest management partner did everything in their power to prevent it and that the failure has been acted upon and the desired results (i.e. pest elimination) achieved.

Clients are fully responsible for the pest management program within their facilities and part of that responsibility is documentation.

Food Safety Modernization Act requirements demand a pro-active approach to pest management in food processing facilities. The documentation must produce the following trail of information for auditors and inspectors:

  • Show that a pest management program is in place to intervene and eliminate pest threats.
  • Describe what the pest issue was and what the response was to the issue.
  • Document the effectiveness of the response.
  • Document that the risk to the facility has been mitigated.

Well organized documentation will provide clients, auditors or inspectors a clear view of where the pest management program stands at any time.

Griffin Pest Solutions experienced, well-versed staff knows what documentation inspectors and auditors need and in what order they want to see it. This not only helps inspections and audits go smoother but also gives clients 24/7 peace of mind that their pest management program is working for them, not against them.

If you have questions or concerns about third-party audit inspections call or e-mail Griffin Pest Solutions at 888/547-4334 or callcenter@https://www.griffinpest.com/ for more information and no obligation assessment.