Silver Service for the Food Sector
Monday 07 July 2008

In the food manufacturing industry, hygiene and cleanliness standards can never be compromised. Companies working in this highly competitive sector must be able to demonstrate to their customers and the businesses they supply, that their manufacturing processes are beyond reproof. Working with leading national and international food manufacturers and distributors, Scarecrow Bio-acoustic Systems provide innovative solutions that help to protect food production facilities against nuisance bird problems.

Assisting companies to comply with health and safety legislation has been Scarecrow’s area of expertise for over twenty years, across a wide range of industry sectors. In more recent years, however, the food sector has specifically called for pest control solutions that are safer and pesticide free. These key requirements are and always have been, at the heart of Scarecrow’s company philosophy; to keep birds away using only humane and inoffensive methods for a pest bird free environment.

Scarecrow’s Patrol, One-Shot and Marina products form part of a comprehensive range of bird dispersal solutions that are safe, proven and easy to use methods of dispersing unwanted birds from food production facilities. Scarecrow’s Bio-acoustic technology has been developed by partnering with a leading Ornithologist to understand bird behaviour; by playing a digital distress call in the area where nuisance birds were present, a hostile environment is created from which the birds fly off, almost immediately.

The different stages of food manufacture, storage and distribution demand varying levels of control and each of Scarecrow’s products can help to reduce the likelihood of food contamination and improve the safety of high risk areas where birds are causing a problem.

Food storage and distribution company, Foodlink S.A. based in Greece, serves some of the world’s best known brands such as Suchard, Kraft and Maxwell Coffee; with almost 90,000 sq ft of warehouse space they were encountering a daily problem of unwanted and disruptive birds. Depending on the season, large numbers of pigeons, sparrows, herring gulls, yellow legged gulls and common gulls were flying in from the seaside and crossing the city of Athens to reach the mountains but stopping en-route at Foodlink’s warehouses.  

Bird droppings can create serious health and safety hazards but additionally the unruly noise and often erratic movements of bird flocks in an area (where people and large vehicles coincided), had to be addressed, 

Takis Goulas of Protecta Health in Athens comments; 

“Scarecrow’s Marina and One-Shot products have been effectively used with 100% dispersal rate. The birds are no longer causing on-going problems for our Clients.”

Scarecrow’s hand held Patrol Two bird dispersal system is also helping to keep black headed seagulls away from Vitacress Salads’ farms across the south of England. As an organic farming specialist, a pesticide free environment is a crucial requirement from its pest control procedures and as part of its bird control management programme, Vitacress adopted Scarecrow’s Patrol Two as its preferred bird dispersal solution. Vitacress is Europe’s leading grower of speciality vegetables, watercress, rocket and baby leaf salads and has 12 sites across 3 continents.

Similar to Marina and One-Shot, the hand held Patrol Two works by broadcasting a digitally stored distress call in the problem area, played at a natural sound level making the birds nervous and disperse. Compared to more conventional methods of bird dispersal such as gas cannons and bird scaring cartridges, Scarecrow Patrol has been very effective with near 100% dispersal.

Francis Holland, Farm Manager, Vitacress Salad Wiltshires comments:

“We’re close to Poole Harbour where there are large numbers of black headed seagulls and they fly across to our farms. The birds are not only noisy but they can cause biological hazards on our edible crops which was a serious problem.  The four Patrols are used every hour of every day to good effect.”

Scarecrow’s philosophy is to keep birds at bay using only humane and inoffensive methods. The Scarecrow Patrol is just one of the many innovative products with diverse applications and worldwide installations, manufactured by the company.