Home stored product entomology is the study of insects which infest foodstuffs stored in the home. It deals with the prevention, detection and eradication of the pests. The five major categories of insects considered in this article are flour beetles, the drugstore beetle, the sawtoothed grain beetle, the Indian meal moth and fruit flies.
This is an important branch of forensic entomology because consumers who find contaminated products may choose to take legal action against the producers. Suitably qualified entomologists are likely to be able to determine the identity of contaminant species, even when no insects are found and the only evidence of infestation is the resulting damage. They should also be able to determine whether the foodstuff was contaminated before or after purchase. Companies are required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to have no more than a certain number of larvae, insects or insect fragments in their products; when this defect action level is exceeded, a consumer can pursue legal remedies.
Read more about Home Stored Product Entomology: Detection of An Infestation, FDA Regulations, Conclusion
Famous quotes containing the words home, stored and/or product:
“He makes his home where the living is best.”
—Latin proverb, quoted in Alan L. Mackay, The Harvest of a Quiet Eye (1977)
“The idea that information can be stored in a changing world without an overwhelming depreciation of its value is false. It is scarcely less false than the more plausible claim that after a war we may take our existing weapons, fill their barrels with cylinder oil, and coat their outsides with sprayed rubber film, and let them statically await the next emergency.”
—Norbert Wiener (1894–1964)
“Out of the thousand writers huffing and puffing through movieland there are scarcely fifty men and women of wit or talent. The rest of the fraternity is deadwood. Yet, in a curious way, there is not much difference between the product of a good writer and a bad one. They both have to toe the same mark.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)