Overview
Production and post-production facilities are designed and managed to physically exclude pests.
- Protected facilities applies to the pest exclusionary structure such as a greenhouse or glasshouse, packing facility, a cold room, storage or processing facility, or a secure laboratory.
- Evaluating the efficacy of this measure requires evidence that both physical barriers, and associated management activities, sufficiently reduce exposure to pests to the level required by the measure.
- The use of protected facilities is sometimes applied as standard industry practices in production, for example growing produce in greenhouses. Protected facilities can be considered when conducting a pest risk assessment. Protected facilities can also be required as a phytosanitary measure.
- Protected facilities may be registered and inspected for compliance with the requirements of the measure by authorised personnel, with oversight by the NPPO or relevant authority of the exporting country.
Evidence to support efficacy
Evidence needs to demonstrate that the physical infrastructure and management practices exclude pests to the level required when the commodity is vulnerable. Survey data inside the protected facility may be used to demonstrate exclusion of pests from the facility if pests are present in the surrounding area.
Knowledge of the biology of the pest may also be used where surveillance is not practical. For example, evidence may include the biology and size of the pest when specifying the mesh size of any coverings for vents or openings in the pest exclusionary facility.
Applying the measure
How it is used
The role of protected cropping structures such as glasshouses and polytunnels can be considered during risk assessment provided there is supporting evidence of their effectiveness. Similarly, the physical security of post-production facilities (or their components) used for packing, processing and storage can help to reduce the risk of the commodity becoming infested after production. These structures can also be recognised as phytosanitary measures. Such protected facility measures will include physical and management requirements to provide confidence that pests will be sufficiently excluded.
Use with other measures
Where a protected facility measure is insufficient on its own it can be combined with other measures. Protected facilities are commonly combined with a Pest Free Site measure that provides added assurance by requiring monitoring and corrective actions within the structures. Protected facilities may also be combined with a buffer zone measure that gives confidence that pest prevalence is low in the immediate vicinity. After harvest, protected facilities are commonly combined with segregation or safeguarding measures to prevent mixing with commodity sourced from non-protocol sites.
Similar measures
Protected facilities is functionally similar to the safeguarding and protected units measures, but these differ in the scale at which they are applied. Protected facilities applies to the structure, while safeguarding is applied at the scale of consignment or packaging box, and protected units is applied to the individual unit, such as a single piece of fruit.
Assurance of correct implementation
Secure facilities may need to be registered and inspected for compliance with the measure requirements by authorised personnel, with oversight by the NPPO or relevant authority of the exporting country. Documentation and verification procedures may also be required. These records may be audited by authorised personnel at an appropriate interval.