The recent case at Manchester United Football club should never have been allowed to happen.
But where does the blame actually lie? Yes, legislation will say that the food environment are primarily responsible - but they (presumably) pay a commercial rate to a commercial pest company to deliver and satisfy a due diligence service, in reducing the pest risk.
Pest Services are often seen as the poor relation - a 2nd division service (if you'll forgive me), but here is a shining example of why paying more attention and working together is so important.
Should the pest company also have been named, as technically (and commercially) they are part of the overall agreement or can they simply wipe their hands of all this and blame the customer?
We don't doubt there will be treatment reports, from who knows when, requesting for the site to clean away old droppings - but how can this be the sole responsibility of the customer? And why was it not pressed upon the customer / site to action these recommendations and prevent the EHO involvement?
In order to collect evidence of fresh / ongoing activity, especially with Mice, identification of fresh droppings is one of the most important elements - if old droppings are left onsite, how can the service technician know which is fresh or old? So where is the value in the service and reports that they are providing?
The 'value' of pest services is not just how much a contract is worth / costs - but must include aspects such as risk mitigation. All too often 'no pest activity' is seen as a reason not to pay for proactive pest management services - but having no pests is EXACTLY what we should all be striving towards. Zero pests is a good thing.
Imaging having a conversation to a fire marshal about paper stored under a staircase - it simply would not be allowed to happen
You can't imaging taking your car for a service and at the end of it the garage writes on a report 'we recommend adding more air to the front tires'. No, they would have added air, possibly charged for it - but they would have handed the car back with full due diligence. So why are mouse droppings allowed to be left onsite - in a food space?
This is all about food safety and reducing the pest risk - and how may spectators would have been exposed to food prepared in an environment where mice have / are active? What would the impact have been if they had contracted a food related bacteria - that's when the news headlines become premiership conversations!
Comentarios