The pest management industry has always played a critical role in helping to protect the food supply chain of custody. A farm-to-fork approach is the current day mantra—a more involved, inclusive system of working with food-based companies and growers—to help ensure the food supply chain maintains a high level of product integrity. The introduction of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it. In order to prevent widespread food illness created by improper processing or sanitation practices, FMSA requires the pest management industry to better leverage their knowledge, program selections, educational pieces, including client trainings, along with treatment strategies to keep human, animal and pet food products safe for consumption.

Fumigation remains an important element of FSMA, and will successfully mitigate pest pressures when performed properly. Fumigation is a method of treatment for pest control purposes that relies on a gas to control or eliminate pests in a space. Fumigants are often applied to soil to control soil-infesting pests that can damage plant growth or crop yields, an example of just how early and important the use of fumigants can begin to protect the food supply chain. Critically important is the fumigation of primary grains, whether conducted post-harvest as a result of over-wintering, or a function of regulatory export on shipments bound for overseas. In so many cases, commodity values in bulk decline because the step of fumigation intervention was overlooked or performed after infestation and damage occurred.