“Compared with other surfaces in


kitchens and food service areas,


Down and dirty


For many people, food and cooking today conjures up a glamorous world of celebrity chefs, Michelin stars and signature dishes. The reality, of course, is that most working kitchens and food service environments are in a down-and- dirty world of high-pressure production, knife-edge margins, and a constant battle to keep bugs at bay.


The low-down is that all too often, the battle is being lost on the forgotten front of floors. Compared with other surfaces in kitchens and food service areas, flooring tends to end up neglected. Yet in any catering premises, floors present a real risk to the health and safety of both consumers and staff.


We’ve been advising kitchen managers and their cleaning teams on the most effective and efficient cleaning techniques for decades, but in recent years understanding of hygienic cleaning has advanced considerably. Much cleaning practice, however, is still mired in the outdated and unhygienic ways of the past, like mopping.


Floors inevitably accumulate soil as shoes track contaminants in from outdoors, washrooms, as well as grease and spillages. Bacteria multiply in cracks, crevices, and the grout lines of tiled floors, especially in such a warm, moist environment. Common cleaning methods fail to dislodge and remove these toxins. They are losing the war on grease, leaving floors slippery and dangerous. With sharp edges, hot stoves and boiling liquids all around, this can be a recipe for disaster.


Studies show not only that floors can become reservoirs of health-threatening pathogens, staff have many direct and indirect contacts to transmit them every day. Apart from the more obvious lapse – such as reusing a dropped utensil – microbes can find their way from floor to food by re-tying a trailing shoelace or lifting a carton or box from the floor to a worktop.


In busy, pressured environments, floor cleaning needs to be fast and effective. Mopping is neither, as it can spread more contamination than it removes, as the mop-head is immersed in dirty cleaning solution and returned to the floor. Even with a firm hand, a mop won’t yield enough pressure to clear bacteria embedded between tiles or in other crevices.


12 | FEATURE


flooring tends to end up neglected.”


In the pressure cooker, competitive arena of food service, it’s essential that cleaning is efficient, safe and effective. James White of Denis Rawlins gets down and dirty with the economic and scientific realities of keeping floors reliably clean.


Faith in disinfecting agents is also misplaced. Cleaning floors with disinfectants kills bacteria but doesn’t remove them. Dead bacteria are left behind as a ready-meal for the next wave of microbes. Given this food source, they can then more easily multiply.


Growing bacterial resistance increases the risk. Even if the sanitiser is thoroughly applied, some can be expected to survive. If they’re immune, bacteria proliferate and disinfectants become increasingly less effective. Also, certain bacteria – such as E coli, salmonella, listeria and campylobacter – can produce biofilms that help them avoid contact with the cleaning solution in the first place.


So, far from being the answer, disinfecting dirt without removing it is ineffectual. And floors that look and smell clean can still harbour a stomach-churning mix of microbes.


It is now easier than ever to test before and after cleaning to gauge effectiveness. A handheld adenosine triphosphate (ATP) monitor measures the level of ATP – the universal marker for animal, bacterial and mould cells.


In the US, scientists used ATP meters and plates contaminated with bacteria to test mops against other methods. Microfibre mopping cut bacteria levels by 51% at best, but dragged the E. coli back into clean areas, so overall effectiveness dropped to 24%.


A scrubber dryer eliminated 99% of bacteria, but there are other less high-tech and more cost-effective alternatives. The OmniFlex Crossover cleaning system – costing a fraction of a scrubber dryer – matched that performance and was two to three times faster than mopping.


The new OmniFlex UniVac – designed specifically for food service – uses compact and reliable equipment, crucially including an industrial wet vacuum to remove soils and leave floors clean and dry underfoot.


Operation is simple yet effective. Just open a spigot to apply fresh cleaning solution to the floor, use the ergonomic speed spreader, lightly brush into grout lines, and then vacuum away – so that dirt and bugs are always removed.


This approach has been proven to be 60 times more effective at removing soils and contaminants than mopping. It also


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