Food and beverage factories or food-related processing plants include a vast array of project types.
Each area within a food processing factory has its own specific requirements for flooring, walls, and other surfaces whether for new construction or renovation.
Of all elements in a food processing plant,
flooring
is arguably the most visible, most abused and one of the most vital contributors to the facility's success.
In the food and manufacturing industry, around
80%
of major injuries caused by slips and falls happen due to water or foodstuffs that have not been cleared away.
Pathogens such as Salmonella, E.coli and Campylobacter result in
600 million
cases of foodborne diseases and around 500,000 deaths each year.¹
1Source: World Health Organization (WHO) estimate of global burden of foodborne diseases, 2015
Systems Plus Knowhow
A functional and purpose-built floor is key to a safe, hygienic production environment. Floors that are hygienic, non-slip, easy to clean and durable provide a secure, attractive place to work. Choosing and installing the right floor is critical to every work environment.
The floor must be hygienic, functional, tough and safe to walk on.
Sika offers solutions for food and beverage production plants. Sika helps owners, designers and project managers select and install the right floors, walls, ceilings, and other finishes for all their food processing and distribution needs.
Building from the ground up or renovating an existing facility provides opportunities to secure a company’s future success. Just as choosing the right food processing equipment is crucial to that success, so is choosing the right flooring, finishes and details and installing it all properly.
1. Hygienic & Easy to Clean
Cleaning of floors in the food industry differs from site to site and from process to process. Regardless, the goal is the same - to maximize hygiene and minimize food infection risks.
Cleaning methods must always be adjusted to the environment and operations. For flooring, for instance, higher surface roughness requires more scrubbing and mechanical work. A rough floor needs to be flushed with higher amounts of water than a smooth one.
In principle, all food and beverage factories use similar detergents and chemicals. However, their use and cleaning procedures may differ between processes. In the same factory, there may be dry processing and wet processing areas with different kinds of contamination.
Learn more about hygienic floors and walls in food and beverage factories
2. Safe & Slip-Resistant
Employee safety is one of the most important requirements for any workplace. Slips and falls are among the most common injuries at work. Most occur because the floor is wet or contaminated.
Four main factors can cause a worker to slip and fall down. These include environment, organization, footwear and individual factors. When selecting the floor surface texture for required slip-resistance, the most important issues to consider are the degree of contamination, applied cleaning regime, slopes and the shoes or boots that personnel wear.
Learn more about personal safety in food and beverage factories
3. Tough & Durable
A durable floor is one that lasts a long time and one that resists deterioration and loss of performance. Main exposure factors include thermal shocks, chemical stress and mechanical loads causing wear and impact. Durable floors begin with quality materials, good design and sound workmanship.
Learn more about durability in food and beverage factories
Sika Floor & Wall Solutions by Requirements
Sika flooring and wall coating solutions are designed according to these types of operations in general. However, the right solutions to be specified in your project should always come from personal advice of a Sika flooring expert because floor plans and requirements vary from project to project. Click on the areas below to learn more.
Sika® Ucrete®
Sika® Ucrete® is dense and impervious. It is the ideal flooring solution where the highest hygienic standards are required and for the toughest industrial environments.
Sika® Ucrete® floor systems are the ideal choice for food and beverage flooring for many reasons:
- Customizable slip resistance
- Specially-formulated system
- Withstands aggressive chemical spillage
- Withstands thermal shock
- Safe and hygienic
- Faster installation
- Faster return-to-service
- Non-tainting and minimal emissions after installation
- Durability and proven performance
- Bespoke, customizable system to meet high performance specification requirements
Watch the video to learn the secrets of durable, safe flooring in food and beverage facilities
Sika® Ucrete® industrial flooring is a family of heavy-duty, resin systems widely used in:
- Food and beverage facilities
- Chemical processing plants
- Pharmaceutical industry
- Heavy-duty processing areas
Sikafloor® MultiDur
Sikafloor® MultiDur is the global standard by Sika for epoxy floor systems. As a workhorse for heavy-duty performance, these floor systems offer excellent mechanical strength, wear-resistance and chemical resistance. They are aesthetically pleasing, even if the color and design are not the major driver in choosing them. These floors excel in functionality and long-lasting performance.
Choose from smooth, textured, broadcasted (slip-resistant) and mortar finishes best suit the project needs of usability, safety and cleaning regime. Within the Sikafloor® MultiDur family, you will find special solutions with extremely high chemical resistance; solutions approved for clean room usage and electrostatic discharging, dissipative and electrically conductive flooring. For more basic flooring use and high-performance wall coating needs, we offer water-borne coating systems.
Sikafloor® MultiDur solutions are commonly found in:
- Storage, logistics and sales areas
- Production, processing and clean room areas
- Ground-bearing decks, car parks
- Commercial, public and residential areas
Sikafloor® Dry Shake and Liquid Hardeners
The Sikafloor® dry shake and liquid hardener range is used for concrete surface hardening, curing and sealing as well as for heavy-duty industrial concrete floors.
Our dry shake Sikafloor® powders are broadcasted directly onto the fresh concrete – before the powerfloat and power troweling finish – to create an extremely hard-wearing, monolithic concrete floor. Additional performance can be achieved through various liquid-applied surface hardeners, curing compounds and surface sealers. The latest development uses special finishing aid products to make colored and more aesthetic applications.
Sikafloor® concrete flooring solutions are commonly found in:
- Storage, logistics and sales areas
- Non-critical, heavy-duty industrial areas such as dry processing facilities
