Food manufacturing is an extremely sensitive process. The stakes are high! At the end of the day, the hygiene and compliance of the process determine the health and safety of food on American tables. Compliance with stringent industry standards and best practices can make or break your production and operations. Often, that compliance starts with your facility's floor. Here are the top five flooring challenges you may face as a facility manager in a food manufacturing facility and how you can address them.

1. Standing Water During Operations or After Washdowns

Proper drainage is crucial to minimize cross-contamination and floor safety risks, particularly after washdowns. If you notice that water and other liquids are not reaching the drains, you need to address the slope of your floor as soon as possible. Proper sloping and drainage is one of the first things we address as the leading commercial flooring contractor, with over 55 years of experience in food manufacturing facilities across North America. Your team can do an outstanding job keeping your production lines clean, but if water is not draining properly, pathogens and bacteria have another chance to contaminate the area. Additionally, slippery surfaces can lead to workplace injuries.

2. Inadequate Floor Systems

Can your floor withstand extreme pH levels? High temperatures? Is your floor system USDA and FDA-approved? Make sure your floor is fine-tuned to your manufacturing process. If your floor system is not properly specified or designed for your exact application, it may lead to significant issues down the line.

Seamless, non-porous and easy-to-clean systems that prevent pathogens from clinging to the surface are essential for maintaining sanitation standards. For example, aging dairy brick floor may be harboring bacteria and moisture in cracks or grout lines, complicating cleaning and maintenance.

Certain manufacturing conditions like extreme heat and liquid spills from industrial fryers can cause plenty of floor damage. However, with the right systems, you can mitigate these risks. It's important to understand which floor solutions are suitable for your specific manufacturing process and invest in resurfacing or replacement before floor damage halts operations or leads to failed inspections.

3. 90-Degree Angles

Cleaning hard-to-reach corners between floors and walls can be challenging. To simplify the sanitation process, seamless, resilient floor-to-wall cove bases are an excellent solution. They allow you to clean every inch of your surfaces easily and utilize gravity to help moisture drain better after washdowns.

4. Floor Safety Hazards

Your fast-paced operations can become hectic during certain seasons! It's essential to keep your staff safe by minimizing tripping hazards, such as uneven floor sections or slippery surfaces. If you notice floor damage that may cause an accident, don't delay your repairs! Looking for commercial-grade do-it-yourself (DIY) supplies for effective floor maintenance at your facility? Visit our online shop today! 

5. Static Electricity

Static electricity can present considerable hazards in different food manufacturing processes, particularly when handling flammable or volatile chemicals and gases. It is generated constantly in busy manufacturing plants due to foot traffic, fast-moving equipment and so on. Just one spark can become a significant problem if you are handling flammable chemicals. To address this issue, consider installing Electrostatic Dissipative (ESD) floor systems, designed to protect your operations from the accumulation of static charge while also providing resistance to chemical and thermal shock.

Bonus: Porous Walls

While seamless, resinous floor solutions are a game-changer for food manufacturing facilities, don’t overlook your walls. Porous vertical surfaces can still accumulate bacteria, mold and other pathogens. Consider using seamless, resinous solutions for both floors and walls that can withstand your cleaning process. Adding cove bases will take your sanitation efforts even further.

Very often, a safe, compliant and efficient food manufacturing operation begins with your floor. By proactively addressing the challenges listed above, you can drastically improve your sanitation efforts and help ensure uninterrupted operations. Don’t wait for a failed inspection or the headache of a costly shutdown to take action. Let's connect and let us help you optimize your floor (and walls!) to your unique operations.