Pest control for restaurants, cafes and takeaways
A commercial kitchen is checked for pests every day by its own staff and every so often by a verifier. A programme makes both of those checks easier to pass.
What does a food control plan ask of a restaurant?
Many Auckland restaurants, cafes and takeaways operate under MPI's template food control plan. For pests, the Food Regulations 2015 require regular inspections for pests and their evidence, removal of anything that attracts them, written pest control procedures, and corrective action when activity is found. The template plan turns that into a daily check of inside and outside areas, waste areas included. A pest management programme sits underneath that check.
The plan does not require a contractor. It allows a business to manage pests by employing a pest control specialist or by managing the risks itself. Either way, the business must be able to show its verifier how staff check for pests and how pests are controlled.
The daily check, the service visit and the verification
Three different checks touch a restaurant's pest control, at three different intervals. Staff carry out the daily check, the programme provides scheduled service visits and the records that go with them, and the verifier reviews both. Knowing which one covers what stops gaps appearing between them, such as a bait station that nobody on staff knows how to read.
Who checks what in a commercial kitchen
| Check | Who does it | How often | What it produces |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily pest check | Kitchen staff, under the food control plan | Every day the kitchen operates | A tick or note in the plan's records; traps emptied, droppings and dead insects removed |
| Service visit | The programme technician | Set in the service agreement from the site's risk | A dated report by monitoring point, with treatment and recommendations |
| Verification | Your verifier | Within 6 weeks for a new business, then between 3 and 18 months depending on results | A verification outcome, and corrective actions if anything is not working |
When a verification outcome is acceptable, the next one is usually 12 months away; an unacceptable outcome brings it forward to 9, 6 or 3 months. Pest findings left open in the records are one of the easier ways to lose that interval.
Which pests matter most in restaurants and cafes?
Three groups cause almost every kitchen finding: German cockroaches, rodents and flies. The German cockroach (Blattella germanica) breeds indoors in warm equipment and usually arrives in cardboard on deliveries. Rats and mice come in from laneways, drains and shared bin areas. Flies follow waste and open back doors. Each needs a different part of the programme.
- German cockroaches: monitored with glue boards at dishwasher plinths, chiller motors and bench frames, and treated with gel bait in cracks rather than spray over food surfaces. The cockroach control programme explains the treatment cycle.
- Rodents: locked bait stations outside, traps and non-toxic monitors inside, and attention to gaps around pipework, door bottoms and the gap behind the cooking line.
- Flies: glue-board fly units placed away from preparation benches, self-closing back doors, and lidded bins emptied on a schedule.
Deliveries and the bin area
Deliveries and waste are where most kitchen infestations start, because both cross the line between outside and inside every day. Food rules require waste to be managed so it does not attract or harbour pests, and a delivery left on the floor in cardboard is the commonest way cockroaches enter. Two routines at the back door prevent more problems than any treatment.
- Unpack deliveries at the door, check cartons for live insects and droppings, and keep outer cardboard out of the kitchen and dry store.
- Keep bin lids closed, wash bins and the bin area on a schedule, and keep waste off the ground between collections.
- Record any finding at the door in the daily check, the same way as one found inside.
Food courts, laneways and shared buildings
In a food court, an arcade or a laneway with several kitchens, one tenant's programme cannot control pests that move between tenancies through shared walls, ceilings and bin rooms. Your food control plan covers your premises. The shared areas belong to the landlord or centre management, and the most effective arrangement coordinates the two.
In practice that means asking who services the shared bin room and the building perimeter, getting a copy of their reports where you can, and making sure the report for your premises records activity at the boundary so it can be traced. When activity keeps arriving from a neighbour, your records are what show the source sits outside your premises. Where several tenants in one building want the same arrangement, a single audit of the shared areas is usually the cheaper starting point.
Your service agreement is with our partner, and it sets out the visit frequency, the monitoring layout and the reporting you receive.
Questions facility managers ask
Does a cafe have to hire a pest control company?
No. Under MPI's template food control plan a cafe can manage pests itself or employ a specialist. It must still check daily, act on what it finds and show its verifier how pests are controlled. Many cafes use a contract because it produces the records and site plan the verifier expects to see.
What should staff do if they see a cockroach during service?
Note the time and place, protect or throw out any food it may have touched, clean and sanitise the area, and record it in the daily check. Then ask for an additional service visit. A single sighting recorded and acted on reads very differently at verification from one left unrecorded.
How often should a restaurant have a pest service visit?
There is no fixed legal interval. Busy kitchens with older fabric, shared walls or a history of cockroaches usually need monthly visits; a small cafe in a sealed modern building may need fewer. The audit sets the starting frequency and the activity records move it from there.
Related pages
Sources
- MPI, Template Food Control Plan: Simply Safe & Suitable, "Checking for pests" (S39-00006, August 2026)
- Food Regulations 2015, regs 17, 18, 88 and 90
Request a site audit. Our partner's technician walks the site and checks the records your verifier or committee will ask for. You receive a written scope with a monitoring layout and a quoted visit schedule.