Hospitality food safety rules and regulations

General hospitality law covering a range of issues — including risk management — includes hotel-related liability issues, which can be rodents or other pest problems.

Ever-tightening food safety and hygiene policies and hotel laws regarding food today make it essential for companies handling food to take appropriate measures for prevention, early detection, and control of pests in food and food supplies.

The Food Safety Modernization Act 2011 (FSMA) — which moved to the end of phase 1 in August 2015 for preventative standards for human food and animal food — puts more emphasis on the global food chain, food chain compliance, and a risk-based approach to food safety management, both in food manufacturing and in business preparing and serving food.¹

Increasingly, the approach is moving from a HACCP to HARPC - Hazard Analysis Risk-Based Prevention Control method - to present a more practical approach to food safety designed to address “Farm to Fork” risk along the whole supply chain.² This includes:

• evaluating hazards to food safety
• identifying and implementing preventive controls to PREVENT hazards
• monitoring controls and maintaining control records
• conducting verification activities

The emphasis for hospitality laws and regulations is now on management through a proactive approach, focusing on the root cause of a potential hazard, not on elimination. This means that for hotel legislation regarding pest control, site expertise and pest risk assessments will be critical.

Rentokil  is your professional partner when it comes to evaluating risks to food safety presented by pests and has decades of experience in controlling pest risks in compliance with industry best practices and statutory obligations, including:

• Individual State Food Safety Act(s) and regulations
• Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI)
• Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)
• FDA regulations and restrictions
• Organic farming regulation and industry standards
• Occupational Safety Act

Our experts can advise you on the use of appropriate monitoring or trapping systems in storage and food preparation areas, where the use of bait for rodent control is not permitted. Rentokil specialists understand hospitality regulations and how they affect what we can and cannot do when it comes to pest control.

We support you in assessing and managing risk through a rigorous Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach:

Steps that can ensure your success in a food safety audit

Know the standard requirements:

• Be clear on which standard you are being audited against
• Be well-versed on the specific requirements of the IPM program

In collaboration with your pest management provider conduct comprehensive reviews of the program just prior to the audit addressing the below points regarding hotel laws and regulations:

• Are training records for the technician available?
• Are all devices located on the map?
• Are all training documents and licenses up to date?
• Is the pest control map up to date?
• Are pest devices clean and in good working order?
• Are all service reports and records available and accurate?

Ensure your pest control expert conducts a pest control trend analysis prior to the audit window:

• Activity by location, device, pest type, and pest number
• Ensure there are actions when trends show increased activity

Ensure all recommendations and findings have documented corrective actions and have been followed up on, including:

• Working together to protect the site perimeter and entrances
• Clarify who will be responsible for corrective actions

¹Information on the Food and Safety Modernization Act provided by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration). 
²Information on HACCP and HARPC was provided by Food Safety Magazine.