Tyson Foods

Partnering to Achieve Audit Success: Tyson Foods’ and Orkin Provide Best in Pest Management

As consumers, we often times forget the behind-the-scenes work that takes place to bring fresh, quality food each night for dinner. At the Tyson Foods processing facility in Monroe, N.C., teams of people provide quality assurance for poultry products supplied to grocery stores – and dinner tables – around the world.

Assuring Tyson products’ safety and quality would not be possible without an effective sanitation and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program. Tyson Foods employs Orkin’s Gold Medal Protection to help keep pests out and works closely with their Orkin team to help maintain a clean environment. With a shared commitment to quality assurance and pest management excellence, Tyson Foods’ Monroe facility and their local Orkin team won a Gold Medal IPM Partner Award, presented by Orkin, Inc., The IPM Institute of North America and NSF Cook & Thurber.

To learn more about the award-winning partnership, we spoke with Cedric Ficklin, quality assurance manager at Tyson Foods’ Monroe facility. Here is an edited transcription of that interview.

Why is Tyson Foods deserving of the Gold Medal IPM Partner Award?

“Our facility’s quality assurance team and Orkin share the same pest management goals. We do all that we can to protect the safety and quality of our products, and we know that Orkin is always available should a pest issue arise. As a team, we continually look for ways to improve sanitation practices and our IPM program.

Why is IPM so critical to Tyson Foods’ business?

“As a poultry processing facility, food safety is always top priority. We chose to implement Orkin’s Gold Medal Protection program because it provides the strict pest management and sanitation guidelines we need to help ensure our products are processed in a sanitary environment. IPM is now a key component of our day-to-day operations at Tyson – right alongside our chicken.”

How does each partner contribute to the facility’s pest management efforts?

“Orkin’s a natural extension of our quality assurance team and services our facility on a weekly, if not daily, basis, providing recommendations on structural and sanitation changes to help keep pests out. Every week, our Orkin pest specialist and I discuss areas that need monitoring for pest activity and note any maintenance problems we need to correct. Our maintenance team also swiftly completes work orders that help prevent pests, such as sealing cracks in walls and along door seams. We make a great team.”

What results has your award-winning partnership achieved?

“All Tyson employees, not just the quality assurance team, act as the eyes and ears of our pest management program. We have drop boxes located throughout the facility, where employees can notify Orkin of any potential pest concerns. As a result of our partnership with Orkin, we continue to see perfect scores on the pest management portion of our third-party audits. I think that says it all.”