The flooring in food and beverage facilities can harbour dangerous pathogens and pose a significant contamination risk. Food particles or byproducts fall on the floor, substances are tracked from space to space, workers walk through contaminants and surfaces may be impossible to clean or keep hygienic. Therefore, protective floor coatings play an essential part in food safety and in ensuring facilities follow HACCP and other hygiene regulations.

Flooring in the food and beverage industry must provide a variety of characteristics in order to meet rigorous health standards. To ensure facility flooring is food-safe and HACCP compliant, the floor coating and finish should offer the following properties.

Coving
Coving, which is installed over the gap between the floor and the wall or other vertical surfaces, allows the protective floor coating material to extend seamlessly, making the floors easier to clean and eliminating the joint between the wall and floor where dirt, dust or germs could hide. The addition of coving is essential for HACCP compliance because it serves as an additional barrier that not only impacts floor hygiene but also assists with proper drainage.

Seamless Finish
HACCP-compliant floor coatings must have a seamless finish.
Grout lines, gaps, joints and seams are the perfect places for bacteria, microbes, fungi and pathogens to hide and breed—impacting the safety of the food and beverage environment and increasing the risk of product contamination. A seamless floor surface, however, does not have any crevices where unwanted substances can gather, and it can also be thoroughly cleaned and sanitised.

Long-Lasting Durability
The flooring in food and beverage facilities is subjected to a wide range of stressors, from high levels of foot and vehicle traffic to regular impacts and abrasions. Additionally, floors will inevitably be exposed to oil, grease, fat, blood, sugar solutions, acids and aggressive cleaning agents as well as thermal shocks associated with sanitization regimens such as steam cleaning and pressure washing. These stressors can cause substantial damage to an unprotected concrete floor, leaving it vulnerable to breaking down and harbouring bacteria. To ensure floors comply with HACCP and other food safety regulations, it’s important to install a durable protective floor coating that maintains its durability for a long time, even in aggressive conditions.

Adequate Drainage
HACCP compliance requires food and beverage facilities to install adequate drainage, ideally stainless steel drains that are incorporated seamlessly into the floor system, laid to a fall and allow excess liquid and contaminants to flow in the right direction toward the drain. This drainage system ensures dirt, oils, grease and other contaminants can be quickly washed away.

Easy to Clean
Floors in food and beverage facilities must be easy to clean in order to remain in compliance with HACCP. When contaminants, excess liquids, dirt, grime, acids, oils, blood or products come into contact with the floor, they must be quickly and effectively removed from the seamless surface.

Certified HACCP Compliant
Floor coating products that are certified as HACCP compliant have been rigorously tested for their use in the food and beverage industry. Certified HACCP-compliant coatings meet the world’s strictest hygiene standards and are designed to help control the risk of potential food safety hazards that could otherwise arise from inadequate floor protection.