Even today world food production suffers substantial losses due to pests during post-harvest, storage, transport and processing. In addition pests are a continuous risk for public health. Hazards can be of microbiological origin, chemical origin or relate to quality deterioration of the goods.
The requirement to asses and analyze the risks related to pests is not only established by concerns about public health safety, but is equally an integral part of each quality program.
Most common risks are contamination from biological and microbiological origin, chemical pollution due to unsafe or unauthorized use of biocides or technical malfunctioning e.g. caused by wires damaged by rodents.