Overview
Physical processing or disturbance of the commodity that also kills or removes pests.
- Examples include juicing, crushing, or peeling for horticultural produce; milling, grinding or turning for stored grain; or debarking, trimming, or wood chipping for wood and wood products.
- Demonstrating treatment efficacy requires quantification of pest mortality in response to processing or disturbance under commercial conditions.
- Physical processing of the commodity is typically identified prior to, and informs the scope of, a pest risk assessment. Specific processing or disturbance activities or methods can sometimes be applied as phytosanitary measures.
- Assurance can be achieved by record-keeping and audit of any physical processing or disturbance requirements.
Evidence to support efficacy
Experimental evidence is needed to demonstrate that the pest will not survive the physical processing or disturbance, especially for the life cycle stages that are associated with the commodity in trade. Results need to be confirmed under operational conditions, which can be challenging if the physical processing and disturbance is not applied consistently across the industry.
Applying the measure
How it is used
This measure is relevant to post-production commodity classes such as processed plant products, growing medium, wood, wood packaging and wood products. The effect of physical processing and disturbance activities on phytosanitary risk are considered during pest risk assessment. If the probability of entry of the pest is removed as a result of the method of processing, then the pest should not be regulated, and phytosanitary measures should not be required (ISPM 32). This may include cooking, extraction processes, fermentation and preservation in liquid.
If processing and disturbance practices vary among registered businesses, or require modification to meet specific pest mortality efficacy, they may be designated as phytosanitary measures. For example, wood chipping may need to be conducted to certain specifications that limits the survival of the regulated pest.
Use with other measures
In some cases, the processed commodity can remain capable of being infested with quarantine pests and so may be subject to phytosanitary measures to prevent that from occurring. For example, following chipping (of wood), drying of fruits and vegetables, quick freezing and polishing of grain.
Where the efficacy of the physical processing and disturbance method is not sufficient, then this measure can be combined with additional measures to ensure that any initial infestation rates are low. For example, to minimise exposure to pests. Additional post-production pest exclusion measures may be needed to prevent the processed commodity from becoming infested.
Similar measures
Reducing infestation rates in the consignment is a by-product of physical processing and disturbance, whereas it is normally the goal of a phytosanitary treatment measure.
Restricted end-uses can involve physical processing and disturbance, but the focus of that measure is on ensuring consignments are not misdirected from their intended end-use.
Assurance of correct implementation
Assurance may require record-keeping and audit of any physical processing or disturbance activities. There may be requirements for the development of standard operating procedures and staff training to ensure that the processing or disturbance methods are correctly implemented.