Food Factory Flooring: Why Cementitious Urethane Is the Best

Building and designing food processing plants require attention to detail. These plants cannot use any flooring design to satisfy a specific appearance taste. Instead, you need to choose a flooring material that can withstand daily work within the plant.

When choosing the right food factory flooring, you must meet the flooring guidelines set by the FDA and USDA. According to these two entities, the right food processing plants flooring must:

Be made of nonporous material and have no cracks or gaps on the surface. In addition, the flooring material should have antimicrobial properties to prevent the growth and development of harmful bacteria.
Be easy to clean and maintain to prevent bacteria formation.
Be moisture and chemical resistant to prevent fast deterioration, leading to an unsafe environment.

Sanitation is a crucial aspect of the food processing industry, and a flooring material that meets the above features helps maintain a clean and sanitary environment.

Importance of Using the Right Flooring Material for Your Food Processing Plant

industrial food grade flooring Choosing food-safe flooring for your food processing industry is crucial in maintaining a hygienic environment. Food processing plants present several unique challenges that you can address by choosing a suitable flooring material. For instance, harmful material from contaminated floors can quickly spread throughout the facility through the workers’ shoes and mobile equipment.

Therefore, you need to choose a flooring material that is easy to clean to ensure you keep up with the government standards. In addition, you need to select food processing floor coatings that can endure vigorous and harsh cleaning procedures and aggressive cleaning chemicals. A thick and durable layer will withstand repeated barrages of high pressure and hot water used in cleaning.

In addition to the properties, you need to ensure proper installation of the floor coating. A properly installed floor coating is easy to clean, preventing germ buildup and harmful substance accumulation. In addition, ensure that the flooring has a proper pitch that promotes adequate drainage.

Best Industrial Food Grading Flooring Options

USDA and FDA recommend using sanitary and hygienic flooring materials for industrial food grading flooring options. Such materials must meet the following requirements:

Water-resistance
Joint-free seamless finish
Crack and erosion resistance
High durability standards
Coved at all junctions

While several materials in the market might meet these standards, a few are FDA-approved. Among these, two of them stand out, and they include:

Urethane Floor Coatings

These floor coatings are nonporous, withstand high traffic, and are chemical and abrasion-resistant. A combination of these features makes the material highly durable and most ideal for food and beverage processing plants. In addition, these flooring materials exhibit non-slip properties and are easy to clean.

Epoxy Coating

Epoxy is another FDA-approved food processing coating that possesses non-porous and stain-resistant features. The material can withstand the daily high traffic, hence a good choice if you are looking for a flooring system that will serve you for many years. In addition, these floorings are easy to maintain and a good choice if you want to level your current flooring system.

You can blend epoxy flooring with other materials to address specific food-grade flooring issues. For example, if you deal with a lot of acid and alkali spillage, then you can mitigate the problem by using high-solid epoxy. These flooring coatings are easy to clean and withstand harsh cleaning chemicals and abrasives.

Qualities Making Cementitious Urethane the Best Food Factory Flooring Material

While there are various flooring materials that you can use on your food processing plant, cementitious urethane happens to be the best in the market today. The material combines cement and water-based technologies to create a high-density flooring material with high resistance to chemical abuse.

In addition, the polyurethane flooring system exhibits qualities that make it suitable for use in the food factory flooring. These include:

Thermal Resistance

Cementitious urethane possesses a thermal coefficient of expansion similar to concrete. The feature enables the flooring material to withstand thermal shocks and cyclings, common in food factories.

The extreme temperature changes in the food factory can easily make the flooring material crack. Unlike most floor coatings, cementitious polyurethane can handle these temperature changes without breaking.

Moisture Tolerance

Flooring in the food processing industry is subject to food byproducts, leading to floor damage and health risks. The cementitious urethane flooring system is non-porous, a feature that prevents germs and bacteria from thriving in the cracks or joints. In addition, this FDA-approved flooring is non-toxic, non-hazardous, and low in odor.

Chemical Resistance

A cementitious urethane coating system turns the floor into an impervious surface that can withstand harsh substances, including solvents, acids, and organic and inorganic alkalis.

Slip Resistance

Due to spills and cracks, food processing areas have potential slips and fall accidents. Cementitious flooring has a slip-resistant and smooth surface that improves the safety of your workplace.

Aesthetic Appeal

The urethane concrete flooring system offers durability and is easy to customize with its limitless choice of colors. The wide range of colors and pigments gives you the freedom to choose a custom blend that matches your company’s brand colors. In addition, you can use a UV-coated cementitious urethane coating system to protect your flooring from fading and discoloration.

Is Cementitious Urethane The Best Option for You?

When choosing a flooring material for your food factory, you need to consider hygiene, safety, and longevity. As seen above, cementitious urethane is waterproof, seamless, and doesn’t support microbial growth. In addition, these coatings are easy to maintain and clean; hence you don’t have to worry about constant spills.

Cementitious urethane comes with anti-slip properties, a feature that allows you to improve the safety of your facility. In addition, the available multitude of colors gives you the freedom to customize your facility flooring to match your corporate branding. Moreso, this food processing floor coating requires minimal maintenance and downtime.

With our years of experience in the industrial flooring sector, the professionals at Liquid Floors have the expertise to handle all types of industrial food-grade flooring systems.