FSSC 22000 Pest Control
FSSC 22000 is three documents, not one: ISO 22000, a sector prerequisite standard, and the scheme’s own additional requirements. Pest control sits in the middle document, and that document is changing on a published timetable. Shield builds the programme so the change is a paperwork exercise rather than a re-survey.
At a Glance
FSSC 22000 combines ISO 22000 for the management system, a sector-specific prerequisite standard for the operational controls, and FSSC’s own additional requirements on top. Pest control is a prerequisite programme, so the detail comes from the middle document. Under Version 6 that is ISO/TS 22002-1:2009, where pest control is clause 12. Version 7, published on 7 May 2026, moves to the new ISO 22002 series, where the requirements sit in ISO 22002-100:2025 clause 7.
Either way the substance is the same six areas: the programme itself, preventing access, harbourage and infestations, monitoring and detection, control and eradication, and the competence and records behind all of it.
What the Standard Asks For
The clause numbering changes between Version 6 and Version 7. What an auditor is actually testing does not.
Established, implemented, maintained and documented, with a designated competent person, identified target pests, and written plans, methods, schedules and control procedures. Not a contract and a stack of service sheets.
Entry points identified and managed, breeding sites minimised, and materials stored outside protected from pest damage and contamination.
Food and water available to pests minimised, harbourage such as burrows, vegetation and stored materials removed, and infested material handled so it cannot contaminate anything else.
Inspection at a frequency justified by risk, detectors and traps in key locations, a maintained map of them, and devices that are robust, tamper-resistant and appropriate to the target pest.
Action to remove pests and prevent recurrence, applied by a suitably qualified or trained person, with eradication measures verified for effectiveness and the results recorded.
Qualifications and registrations on file, chemical approvals and application records held, and inspection records retained and analysed for trends and programme effectiveness.
Version 7
FSSC published Version 7 on 7 May 2026. Nothing about your pest control programme has to change today, but the timetable is fixed and worth planning against rather than reacting to.
Version 7 published. Version 6 remains the scheme you are certified and audited against.
Version 6 audits continue as normal throughout this period.
Certification audits are conducted against Version 7.
The window for upgrade audits against Version 7. Every certified site moves across inside it.
Version 7 adopts the ISO 22002 2025 series: ISO 22002-100:2025 as the common baseline and ISO 22002-1:2025 for food manufacturing. Pest control becomes clause 7 rather than clause 12.
Map your existing programme to the new clause structure and check the parts that were reworded, particularly control and eradication. Doing it early turns the upgrade audit into a document review.
How We Build It
A field biologist writes the target pests, plans, methods, schedules and control procedures, mapped to the clause structure you are audited against and cross-referenced to the one you are moving to.
BPCA qualified, RSPH trained, CRRU compliant and DBS checked, with the certificates held against your site so the competence clause is answered without asking us for anything.
Numbered, tamper-resistant, appropriate to the target pest, sited where they cannot contaminate product or equipment, and mapped in Insectram so the drawing and the floor never diverge.
Where a treatment is carried out, the eradication is verified and the verification recorded. That is an explicit requirement in the 2025 text and the one most programmes leave as an assumption.
Where Sites Fall Short
FSSC auditors test the management system and the floor together, and increasingly they do it without notice. Most findings are things that were true on the day and would not have been true the week after a service visit.
A signed contract and monthly reports, with no document that states target pests, methods and control procedures.
Points moved, added or removed with the drawing unchanged. The quickest finding an auditor can raise and the one most exposed by an unannounced visit.
A full year of reports on file, no trend analysis, and no statement of whether the programme is effective.
Proofing or housekeeping raised repeatedly across visits with nothing recorded against it.
Monitoring handed to a contractor and never reviewed by the site. The obligation to review the reports stays with the organisation.
Treatment carried out after an infestation, with no record that it was verified as effective afterwards.
Our Method
A field biologist surveys the site and the surrounding areas and writes the prerequisite programme: target pests, plans, methods, schedules and control procedures, referenced to the clause structure you are audited against. Devices are selected for the target pest, sited clear of product, numbered and mapped in Insectram. Competence records, chemical approvals and application records go into the portal from the first visit. At ninety days the first trend and effectiveness review is produced, so the evidence is already accumulating rather than waiting for an audit date you may not be given.
AI Pest Management
Unannounced auditing is the reason a live system matters more under FSSC than under almost any other scheme. There is no window in which to reconcile the map, close the open recommendations and write up the trends. Insectram holds the programme document, the device map, every inspection at point level, application records, competence certificates and the trend reviews, updated as the work happens rather than compiled afterwards. Your named competent person reviews each report in the portal and that review is itself a record. An auditor can be given direct access and read the evidence at source.
Unannounced Audits
FSSC requires unannounced auditing as part of certification, and Version 7 strengthens the emphasis on it in line with GFSI expectations.
For most prerequisite programmes that is an inconvenience. For pest control it is a genuine test, because pest control is the prerequisite that degrades quietly between service visits. A device gets moved when a rack is installed. A recommendation is raised and nobody is assigned to it. The external bait points disappear behind a pallet delivery. None of that shows up on a scheduled visit that everyone has prepared for, and all of it is visible to an auditor who arrives on a Tuesday morning in November.
The only reliable answer is a programme where the map, the records and the open actions are current continuously, because there is no notice period in which to make them current.
Field Biologist Support
A field biologist writes the programme and maps it across the Version 6 and Version 7 clause structures, so the upgrade audit is a review rather than a rebuild.
A documented inspection written in the language the standard uses, identifying what an auditor would raise while there is still time to close it. Worth doing on a schedule when the audit itself is unannounced.
A field biologist can attend and answer technical questions directly. Where a nonconformity is raised you get a corrective action plan with owners, dates and evidence requirements, closed out through the portal.
The Other Standards
FSSC sites are usually supplying into more than one customer specification, and often hold a retailer scheme as well. The programme is built to satisfy the strictest requirement in the set.
The management system half of FSSC, and where the prerequisite requirement comes from. Therein clause 7 detail is set out in full.
The food industry benchmark: documented IPM, trend analysis of catch data and a named contractor with proven competence.
Proportionate, achievable pest control for smaller UK food and drink producers, without the overhead of a BRCGS-scale system.
A scored inspection rather than a pass, with Integrated Pest Management one of five categories worth up to 200 points.
Farm and packing assurance, where pest control works alongside grain storage and livestock operations.
The documentation an environmental health officer asks for, and how pest control sits inside your HACCP plan.
Client Feedback
“Shield’s audit compliance support for our BRCGS certification has been invaluable. Their knowledge of the standards has made our audits much more streamlined.”
Food Manufacturing
“We’ve been using Shield’s Insectram reporting system and it has changed how we manage pest control. Real-time updates and trend analysis keep us proactive.”
Multi-site Facilities
“Shield’s commercial pest control service is impressive. Their technicians are professional and thorough, ensuring our warehouse remains pest-free.”
Warehousing
Areas We Cover
Based in Selby, Shield services FSSC 22000 certified food manufacturing, packing, storage and distribution sites across Yorkshire, the Humber and the North of England. Independent since 2002, BPCA registered, £10m public liability, 24-hour emergency response.
A Shield field biologist will review your pest control prerequisite programme against the scheme version you are audited against now, map it to Version 7, and tell you what an unannounced auditor would find today. No obligation.
A: Version 6. FSSC published Version 7 on 7 May 2026, but certification audits against it do not begin until 1 May 2027. Version 6 audits continue until 30 April 2027, and upgrade audits against Version 7 run from 1 May 2027 to 30 April 2028. For pest control that means you are currently assessed against the prerequisite requirements in ISO/TS 22002-1:2009, clause 12, and will move to ISO 22002-100:2025, clause 7.
A: The structure more than the substance. Version 7 adopts the ISO 22002 2025 series, so the requirements move from ISO/TS 22002-1:2009 clause 12 to ISO 22002-100:2025 clause 7, with ISO 22002-1:2025 referring across to it. The same six areas are covered, but the text has been reworded and extended, most noticeably on control and eradication, which now requires eradication measures to be verified for effectiveness and the results recorded. Mapping your existing programme to the new clause numbering early turns the upgrade audit into a document review.
A: By making the evidence a by-product of the service rather than something assembled before a date. The three things that decay between visits are the device map, the open recommendations and the trend analysis, and all three are the ones an unannounced auditor reaches for. Holding them in a live portal that updates as each visit happens means the answer is the same whichever Tuesday the auditor arrives.
