Dining with Danger: Part 1

The Danger

One of the greatest fears on the mind of every restaurant is that one of our guests could get sick from the food that is served. This is why proper food handling procedures, sanitation, temperature, etc. are so vitally important to our day-to-day operations.

But health risks are also why excellent pest elimination practices are absolutely essential in our restaurants. Even the most cursory examination of the topic of pests will reveal that these creatures can be vectors of disease, and while this year everyone will be thinking about mosquitoes and the Zika virus, (and rightfully so), there already exists the potential for serious human health risks in the pests that are currently surrounding your restaurant. Here are a few to be aware of:

Roaches

Few creatures make us recoil as much as the cockroach, whether it’s German, Oriental, American, or any of the other 3,500 species that inhabit the earth. But more than their physical appearance, we must be aware of the grave health risks cockroaches pose to our diners and staff should they enter our foodservice establishment.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has listed over 40 different pathogens that cockroaches carry that are transferable to human beings. These include bubonic plague, infectious hepatitis, leprosy, pneumonia, polio, salmonella, and typhoid fever just to name a few. They are also responsible for food poisoning, nematode worms, and internal parasites. Furthermore, their dander has been linked to both allergies and asthma.

Cockroaches have the capability to live almost anywhere, including our kitchens, our deliveries, our storage areas, even our dining rooms. Their capacity to infect our staff and customers cannot be overstated.

Rodents

When we think about diseases carried by rodents, many of us think only of the black plague of medieval history. The reality is that the common mouse and the Norway rat pose a number of serious health risks to patrons and employees of our restaurants. Rodent expert Robert Corrigan lists nearly twenty contagious diseases carried by mice and rats. A few of these include food poisoning, Hantavirus, Lyme disease, Trichinosis, Rickettsialpox, rabies, and Weil’s disease, among others.

The word “rodent” is from the Latin verb meaning “to gnaw,” and that’s exactly what rodents do, constantly gnawing their way into your establishment and seeking to spoil your products. And as they find their way into your restaurant they leave behind droppings, urine, and sebum (the oil from their hair), all of which can contaminate the food that you are about to set before your guests.