It is a common misconception that under the Food Act 2014, a Food Control Plan requires a business to have pest control provided by a professional pest control company.
“Restaurants want council-compliant pest control plans, but don’t want to pay pest control professionals,” explained Bug King founder Mark McDonald. “At the moment we see a lot of restaurants who can’t afford to do it because foodservice is a low margin business – sometimes they just don’t have the turnover.”
In truth, as long as restaurants have proactive pest-control management monitoring, they can do it themselves with minimal fuss and a fraction of the cost. All they need to do is demonstrate to council inspectors that there is an effective programme in place to manage pests.
Bug King offers DIY pest control for the commercial market. The Bug King DIY kits focus on rodents and cockroaches, which are often a focus of council inspections, as well as providing business owners with the necessary paperwork to present to inspectors.
“We’ll give them the equipment to cover off rodents as well as German cockroach monitors to cover at-risk appliances,” said McDonald. “The paperwork can often seem daunting, so we help them take care of that as well.”
The Food Compliance Package, available in different sizes depending on the business, includes professional quality rodent stations and twelve months’ worth of cockroach monitoring equipment. The packs come with full installation instructions and advice on where best to place the bait stations and the monitors, as well we council-compliant documentation and instructions, safety data sheets, a site map and a pest sighting report template – all necessary components of a Food Control Plan. The pack will also give the business owner access to the Bug King helpline. Apart from rodent bait, restaurants are not given any dangerous poisons or professional-level toxins.
For more information call 0800 DIY BUG or email diyhelp@bugking.co.nz.
