Industrial facilities of all kinds are required to adhere to hygiene requirements for their flooring, with the Food and Beverage industry being no exception. Because of the nature of the products they produce, food processing facilities are under strict scrutiny from regulators and have some of the strictest hygiene requirements for their industrial flooring. Not only must the floors be able to reach strict hygiene standards but they also need to be equally as functional and withstand day to day splatters of food, hot oils and food acids that they will be exposed to.
Food safe flooring refers to floor coatings that have features to prevent microbial growth and aid ease of cleaning. These pathogenic microbes can jeopardize the safety of food and become a health risk for employees and customers alike. This makes it imperative that you choose a flooring system that is hygienic to the highest standard and has the ability to withstand the industry’s extreme environments. Some of the additional challenges, other than the growth of microbes, that the industry faces include constant wet conditions, temperature extremes, corrosion as a result of acids and alkalis, and strict HACCP hygiene regulations that need to be adhered to.
HACCP and Food Safe Flooring
The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), ensures that businesses involved in food preparation adhere to the international benchmark of food safety management. Following a directive from the South African government, the F&B industry has to now strictly follow the HACCP guidelines or risk defaulting on the stringently imposed regulations. According to the guidelines, flooring needs to maintain a seamless and impervious finish even when subject to the harsh day-to-day environment. Seamless floor finishes such as resin prevent dirt from being trapped between open joints and are in line with regulations. The Robex SA Foodsafe System offers a completely seamless hygienic flooring solution. Our RX Foodsafe flooring system fully adheres to the HACCP International standard requirements.
What to look for in food safe flooring
Here are some of the factor to look for when you’re evaluating different food safe flooring options:
- Moisture Tolerance: Floors in the Food and Beverage industry are exposed to all kinds of food byproducts which can often lead to health risks and floors deteriorating as a result of ongoing exposure to moisture.
- Durability & Performance: Food processing factories use heavy equipment and machinery to process huge quantities of raw materials and, on top of this, the flooring needs to still hold up under loaded hand carts and forklifts. Additionally, considering high volume foot traffic and high acidity byproducts from food production, the flooring faces unique challenges.
- Slip resistance: While there’s a need for seamless, smooth surfaces, this needs to be balanced out by the fact that the risk of slips and falls can endanger the lives of employees and customers. Your industrial floor finish needs to provide slip resistance especially if the floor is likely to get wet because of spillages or cleaning processes.
- Thermal Resistance: Extreme temperature swings are not surprising in a food production facility, with floor temperatures differing greatly. You can expect floor temperatures to go down to -20 degrees centigrade in the presence of chillers, freezers and blast chillers. Not just any floor coating can handle such low temperatures without becoming brittle and fail. Polyurethane does a better job of handling these conditions than most coatings.
- Time required for application: In the fast-paced food industry environment, there’s a need for flooring solutions that don’t take away too much time from productivity. A system that takes too long to cure might lose the business more money than what was bargained for. This is why finding a fast-curing solution, like the Robex SA Food Safe system, that meets the F&B environment’s needs with minimal disruption is the best solution.
Read up further on why food safe flooring is so important for your business.
The RX Foodsafe Flooring System
The Robex SA Foodsafe System uses MMA resin which is ready to use in 2 hours. RX Foodsafe is the ultimate fast-curing MMA resin system that meets the food industry’s operational needs for a clean, safe and sanitary environment. Combining the strength of superior intercoat adhesion with chemical, wear and slip resistance, RX Foodsafe offers a completely seamless hygienic flooring solution.
Some of the benefits that make RX Foodsafe ideal for kitchens, food processing, food production and catering premises include:
- It cures in one hour = no downtime
- High chemical and biological resistance
- Can handle a wide range of climatic conditions
- Finishes can be seamless, smooth or non-slip
- Can be applied on old and new substrates of concrete, ceramic tiles and wood
- One system for vertical and horizontal applications
The RX Foodsafe is the ideal, fast-curing flooring solution for the Food & Beverage industry that requires no downtime and that follows all HACCP regulations.
