The ultra-hygienic polyurethane flooring range Flowfresh has successfully achieved HACCP International certification for the second time, with Flowfresh Cove included in the accredited collection for the first time.
This certification comes just over a decade since the global resin flooring manufacturer Flowcrete Group first combined the silver-ion based antibacterial agent Polygiene with a robust polyurethane coating, creating what is now the go-to choice of flooring for the food and beverage industry.
In fact, many of the Flowfresh coatings that the company worked on a decade ago are still in place and continuing to provide hygienic, reliable and safe surfaces for large-scale food production and processing operations around the world!
Flowfresh was developed to meet a demand in the food and beverage industry for a floor that would withstand the sector’s unique challenges. Without an adequate finish underfoot, food and beverage plants were vulnerable to a long list of unwanted costs and problems.
With an average life-span of approximately 15 years, food producers that have installed the finish know that the facility is protected for the long term against the costs and concerns of a failing floor.
The initially higher cost of installing a thicker, fit-for-purpose flooring solution can lead F&B businesses to opt for a cheaper alternative, however this logic often backfires and ends up costing the company more money over time.
Long lasting antibacterial legacy
Flowfresh not only meets the strict standards of HACCP International, but its antibacterial property goes beyond even this industry guideline by empowering it with the capacity to eliminate up to 99.9 per cent of bacteria in contact with the floor.
The manner in which Polygiene’s unique, all-natural silver-ion technology is incorporated throughout the polyurethane matrix of Flowfresh means that even after a decade and a half, the floor won’t have lost any of its bactericidal power. This contrasts starkly to antibacterial treatments that rely on chemical coatings, which are prone to wearing away over time.
The permanence of Flowfresh’s bacteria killing property was put to the test when it was analysed according to the ISO 22196 standard, which measures the efficacy of antibacterial-treated surfaces. As part of this test, samples of Flowfresh were hot washed and abraded multiple times, over and above the ISO 22196 requirements.
This intensive abuse was undertaken to recreate the reality of what a floor in a food plant would be subjected to and Flowfresh more than proved that it was able to survive such conditions and maintain its superior hygiene credentials.