Health risks and safety hazards related to insects and mites in stored products

In 2008, a publication appeared describing the health risks related to the presence of (insects, mites, fungi, rodents and birds as pest organisms in stored products. For each organism the publication listed the main species, current pest management procedures, and current control methods. The main part of each section dealt with health hazards of each organism and risk assessment of these hazards adding key actions for the future. For all of the organisms their mere presence in the product represents a contamination and as such is unacceptable. Infestation by insects or mites can adversely affect humans and livestock and thus become a health risk by ingestion of insects or mites - rarely a real threat except at high pest densities – or by induction of allergy, which may develop after previous exposure of humans to the organism, fragments of it or to its excrements. This may be the case for insects. Especially for mites, this risk is considered to be relatively high due to the small size, ubiquitous presence of storage mites and cross reactivity between their allergens and those from house dust mites. Health risks originating from storage mites have been underestimated. It is recommended that action is taken to elucidate the role of both storage mites and insects in development of allergic reactions. Other health risks stem from pesticides applied to the products to control insects.