Home Stored Product Entomology

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:

    Funny ain’t it. Here I am worrying about a woman. Men don’t worry much about women when they’re around. But when it gets way off from home like we are now, and where he knows he’s going a lot further away ... I mean that’s when a woman gets workin’ in your mind. You reckon you’re a fool for not noticin’ before how, how big a part of things they be. There ain’t nothin’ like seein’ a woman’s face.
    Dudley Nichols (1895–1960)

    After eleven years I was composing
    Love-letters again, broaching the word ‘wife’
    Like a stored cask,
    Seamus Heaney (b. 1939)

    Labor is work that leaves no trace behind it when it is finished, or if it does, as in the case of the tilled field, this product of human activity requires still more labor, incessant, tireless labor, to maintain its identity as a “work” of man.
    Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)