HIGH STANDARDS
Hygienic walls and flooring play a crucial role in upholding food production health and safety standards. The experts at Sika explain.
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic there is certain to be unprecedented scrutiny paid to hygiene standards applied in sectors such as food and drink manufacturing. This is vital in keeping operational staff safe and just as importanty, protecting the consumer at the end of the supply chain. In such sanitary-critical environments, good quality, smooth, easy-to-clean walls and flooring can play a large part in maintaining cleanliness levels.
In areas of food and beverage production floors and walls are under continual stress from water and chemicals, temperature changes and cleaning agents. Therefore, whilst they need to be hygienic and meet strict health and safety standards, they must also be chemical and slip-resistant, repairable and have an ability to withstand climatic variations, as well as high mechanical loads and wear.
FIT FOR PURPOSE With major supermarket chains regularly auditing their supply chain, meeting the needs of the food industry’s floor requirements can be quite a challenge. This can be overcome by selecting a system that is specifically designed to uphold hygiene and safety standards. Previously, ceramic tiles were seen as suitable surface coverings for commercial kitchens and the like. But as a flooring solution in a sector with such rigorous and demanding requirements they provide their own set of problems with tiles becoming dislodged, chipped or the grout breaking down during steam cleaning processes, resulting in hygiene implications. Vinyl surfaces, due to the joints therein, can also be a harbinger of dirt and bacteria.
IMPERVIOUS RESIN Representing about 4% of the floorcovering market in the UK with an estimated annual market size of 7.1 million, resin flooring offers a hygienic, impervious alternative to traditional flooring types in industrial environments, such as those pertaining to food and beverage manufacturing plants. In these environments, where robust cleaning measures are a must, flooring is also potentially exposed to corrosive chemicals. Service temperatures can vary from 120°C to -40°C, while surfaces often have to withstand forklift trucks and other heavy machinery and equipment. Sika has developed a range of solutions which are ideal for such demanding operational circumstances. Its resin floor systems and hygienic wall coatings utilise the best available technologies by meeting and exceeding client expectations, industry-best practices, building regulations and legislation relating to areas of comestible production.
MINIMISING THE RISK As areas of food production are subject to a range of hazardous substances, a premises’ fabric should be designed to make cleaning and maintenance easy. This means, with infection prevention and control a prerequisite, all floors, walls and ceilings must be smooth, impervious, as well as hard and seamless.
If surfaces are free of breaks, cracks and gaps they will be unable to retain or permit the passage of dirt or moisture and will not become a breeding ground for bacteria and result
16 | COMMERCIAL KITCHENS & FOOD PREPARATION
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