Food management in museums and historic houses as part of an IPM programme

Managing food is an essential consideration when looking to avoid pests. As museums and cultural heritage sites are populated with people, the accommodation, and often provision, of food is necessary. There is very little in the literature directly dealing with food management in the context of museums and heritage venues (SPNHC, 2014), although there is a lot of relevant literature from the food industry in the context of food storage, processing, and environmental health, from which we can extract some useful information (Rentokil, 2016). This article will outline the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) risks associated with food management, and suggest some measures that can be put in place to mitigate the problems within museums and other cultural institutions.