From the Ground Up: Flooring in the Dairy Industry

Booster Blog

Flooring in the dairy industry

Have you ever thought about what goes into providing your ice creams and your cheeses? Well we have, and it’s quite a lot. Outside of the manufacturing itself, the building in which it takes place is under strict regulation.

The conditions of hygiene necessary are similar to those of a medicine manufacturing department. Thus, standards must comply with requirements of BRC, FDA, and FSSC 22000. The bar is set very high. Of course, wherever possible there must be no holes, nooks or crannies for pests to settle into. Such a situation would bring disastrous consequences along with it.

Flooring

Where we’ll focus on this article is flooring. As it provides a foundation to the contents of a factory, whether it be animals or heavy industrial equipment, it’s an essential part of design that must not be overlooked. A level of strength and hygiene is a must to ensure a long-lasting, efficient factory.

Though durability and hygiene are of extreme importance, just as vital is safety. Particularly in the dairy industry, explosions are a threat. Dust from the milk powder, if in the right (or wrong) conditions, can lead to explosive reactions.

Bolidt flooring can be electrically conductive, dissipating any static electricity. This removes the risk of electrostatic discharge (the process that creates lightning and thunder).

Whilst in a dairy factory it might not summon frazzling forks of lightning, it can disable electronic devices, rendering them useless and, in turn, bring production lines to a halt. On top of this, electrostatic discharge in an environment with dust (or milk powder!) can pose a direct threat of explosions. Therefore, electronically conductive flooring is invaluable.

Fonterra

Dairy giant Fonterra are the first to have Bolidtop® 700 AM installed in a factory. The antimicrobial flooring system has mainly been applied in healthcare thus far. However, it’s just as suiting that it be applied in an environment that deals with food. To be specific, the factory in Heerenveen deals with baby powder.

Ausnutria Hyproca

Another company dealing with baby food is Ausnutria Hyproca. We recently fitted their factory in Heerenveen with 18,000 m2 of Bolidtop® 700. The part of the factory that deals with powder was installed with Bolidtop® Stato.

This flooring system diffuses any static electricity, removing the risk of electrostatic discharge and explosion. This customer wishes to export products to the US and, therefore, the floor had to meet the standards of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In regards to cleanliness, the FDA states that floors should not be electrically charged. It makes the job of cleaning much harder, as dust particles group together. For this reason Bolidt applied a special coating that allows virtually no voltage in the flooring.

As you can see, flooring has a major part to play in the dairy industry. If you’d like to know more about Bolidt’s specific solutions for the industry, please don’t hesitate to make contact with Ton van Wijnen at twijnen@bolidt.nl