Epoxy Flooring for Vegetable & Fruit Processing Plants

Fruit and vegetable processing plants have unique flooring requirements, which are in place to help ensure the safety of the consuming public and facility workers alike. In addition, floors must be easy to clean and extremely durable. Whether it’s the processing rooms, packing rooms, storage spaces or transportation staging areas, all spaces within fruit and vegetable processing plants require adherence to strict construction code and health inspection regulations.

In addition, meeting USDA guidelines is imperative. When it comes to flooring for facilities that process agricultural products, urethane mortar materials, such as Florock’s USDA compliant, anti-microbial FloroCrete Systems, are the number one choice.

Battling Health Risks and Upholding Food Security

In order for vegetable and fruit plant flooring to be at its most efficient and safe, it’s advised that sub-floors be made of good quality concrete that is smooth-finished and properly coated. Any cracks or holes should be cleaned and repaired immediately. The right flooring and sanitation practices can help keep dangerous pathogens, such as listeria, salmonella, and E. coli, in check.

Concrete is porous by nature. Without the right antimicrobial impervious concrete coating, microorganisms and cleaning solutions can soak into the floor slab to create a toxic cocktail, eventually contaminating foodstuffs. The constantly damp conditions within processing plants, along with the various chemicals used, can compromise the structural integrity of improperly coated concrete floors. Few floor covering materials are proven to withstand the conditions within fruit and vegetable processing plants, where daily splash and spill of high concentration sugars, salts, acids, alkalis and sanitizing agents can occur.

The stand-out flooring option for produce processors is USDA-compliant urethane mortar flooring, such as FloroCrete, which has demonstrated itself capable of standing up to strenuous food plant conditions year after year. No other concrete coating can match the track record or urethane mortar against the near constant cleaning taking place in processing plants, including high pressure washing with alkaline cleaning solutions and the thermal shock of hot water rinsing or steam sanitizing.

FloroSpartic Flooring installed in cold storage room by experienced crews of Mirage of IL

Additional Flooring Installation Notes for Processing Plants

To encourage increased sanitation in fruit and vegetable processing plants, it’s important to also pay mind to floor and wall joints. Floors should be installed with a curve up the wall so that there is no corner where bacteria and dirt can collect and grow. Floors should also be properly sloped to allow for drainage and to prevent pools of water or other liquids from forming. FloroCrete Cove is ideal for efficiently creating a floor-to-wall cove base that keeps visiting health inspectors smiling.

The full line of USDA-compliant FloroCrete Urethane Mortar Systems offers other benefits that are desirable in fruit and vegetable plant flooring too, such as outstanding moisture tolerance, antimicrobial protection, customizable slip resistance and exceptional durability. A variety of colors and formulations, including FloroCrete SLX, RT and HD, as well as waterproofing options for upper level operations, rounds out the line.

Long-Lasting Fruit and Vegetable Plant Flooring Solutions

When it comes to health and safety, managers can’t afford to compromise. When selecting flooring for fruit and vegetable processing plants, Florock can help. To learn more about the right concrete floor coating solution for your specific application, contact Florock anytime.