Making sure the flooring in your kitchen is up to scratch can be a daunting task, especially with all the legal requirements and regulations in place surrounding commercial flooring.
Working out whether the flooring in your work kitchen meets standards can be tough and
time-consuming. Trudging through all the relevant Health and Safety Executive (HSE) materials and advice is a struggle to fit around your long working hours and hectic schedule.
2. Heat Resistance and Strength
5. Slip-Resistance Flooring and Safety Equipment
If you want to see if your flooring is right, considering remodelling your work kitchen or just want to keep in the know of the important aspects of your job, here are the commercial kitchen flooring requirements: 5 things to check.
1. Hygiene and Cleanliness
Hygiene is one of the most important factors of any good kitchen, it’s considered in every aspect of your job, from food storage and preparation to chefs and kitchen staff hygiene and even the flooring.
Cleaning every part of the kitchen after a long shift is never a fun task so having floors that are easy to clean would be an incredible help. Specialist non-porous flooring has been adapted for this very purpose, which is great at preventing food juices and liquids from being absorbed into the floor. These special materials help cleaning and prevent stains from occurring.
From a legal viewpoint, standards for the hygiene of commercial kitchens require that flooring must protect against the buildup of dirt, which this non-porous flooring would be perfect for.
2. Heat Resistance and Strength
With the running of busy kitchens, it's common to drop heavy pans, have utensils slip off the counter or have boiling water overflowing onto your floors. Good kitchen flooring needs to be strong enough to undergo these drops and spills without burning, smashing, or cracking, which is unhygienic, hazardous, and results in spending countless amounts on new flooring every time something is dropped.
Any knowledgeable commercial flooring company worth their salt will be able to help with sourcing strong, heat-resistant flooring, made of materials such as vinyl, ceramic tile with epoxy grouting, or stone.
Quality floor types include stainless steel with a non-slip profile and welded joints, quarry tiles with impervious sealant, polyvinyl sheets or tiles with heat-welded joints, or concrete that is steel trowel case hardened with epoxy sealant.
Floor materials shouldn't encourage pests. Since grease, oil, and dirt can buildup during the day, it's important that junctions should have concave moulding (be coved) to make cleaning and disinfecting floors easier.
These materials will ensure that your floors can keep up with and endure your fast-paced kitchen, while also ensuring that you adhere to European Standards regarding longevity of kitchen flooring which will save you money in the long run as flooring not designed to withstand such high temperatures often degrade quickly.
3. Non-Toxic Materials
In keeping with the general cleanliness and health of your kitchen, it’s important to ensure that your flooring doesn’t contain any harmful chemicals which can pollute your cooking environment.
UK government guidelines outline in their hygiene standards that commercial kitchens must ensure that flooring is made of non-toxic materials, so this is definitely something to check and bear in mind when considering the flooring for you kitchen.
4. Correct Drainage Systems
In a busy kitchen, with staff moving around all the the time, hazards seem to appear non-stop, which is why there are so many rules and regulations in commercial kitchens.
Proper drainage from spills and cleaning is exceedingly important and is often overlooked when thinking about your flooring needs.
An efficient way to model your drainage is to place drains at strategic points around your floor to ensure optimal draining and hygiene.
5. Slip-Resistance Flooring and Safety Equipment
Making sure you have slip-resistant flooring is one of the most important things you can do in your kitchen; you can also add durable, slip-resistant mats to combat fatigue and provide extra safety elements. Statistics posted by the HSE show slipping and tripping to be the single most common cause of major injury in UK workplaces.
There are so many regulations in place to ensure that you are protected in every way against slipping in the kitchen.
Of course, the best way to ensure that you are protected against slips and falls is to buy
high-quality, durable, slip-resistant shoes. That’s where SHOES FOR CREWS (EUROPE), LTD can help. Our kitchen safety shoes with engineered outsoles have incredible slip-resistant grip which give the ultimate resistance on any type of floor. How do non-slip shoes work? Our shoes are designed to give you the optimal safety experience. There’s Shoe Traction, TripGuard, SpillGuard, Hoverlite and more.
Check out some of the latest styles for Men and Women.
Find out how we can help make your commercial kitchen even safer.
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