Floor Cleanliness and Food Safety Scores

Food safety inspectors check every inch your establishment during an inspection, including your floors. While floors are considered non-contact surfaces they still must meet rigorous standards to pass inspection. If not, expect lower food safety scores, possible closure, and damaging press coverage.

That’s because poorly maintained floors are unsafe and unsanitary. They hold standing water, harbor pests, and cause slip, trip, and fall accidents. Floors can be in such bad shape that the entire restaurant must close.

Don’t believe it? Check out what the River Valley Democrat Gazette wrote about a restaurant in Fort Smith, Arkansas. “Floors throughout most of the kitchen need to be redone in order for proper cleaning to be accomplished. This problem appears to be contributing to the presence and multiplication of insects in the facility and needs to be addressed.”

Sounds pretty unappetizing. Don’t wait for a food inspector to broadcast flaws in your floor maintenance protocol. Here’s how to improve floor care and your food safety scores.

Pests and Floors

Foodservice establishments attract pests with the same features that attract customers: food, water, and a safe place to hang out. Surprisingly, a poorly maintained floor offers these unwanted guests all three. Bits of food that fall behind equipment provide nourishment while cracks in floor tiles or grout lines hold water. These little imperfections are also great hiding spots where vermin can vibe and thrive.

Grease, a problem in almost every kitchen, amplifies the issue. Greasy buildup is hard to remove, particularly with a deck brush that pushes the mess into grout lines. After cleaning, the residue sits there, attracting more pests while discoloring and damaging expensive flooring materials.

This is why any integrated pest management plan should include floor care.

Better Floor Cleaning Protocols for Better Food Safety Scores

Proper floor cleaning will help control pests. But getting that task done at the end of every night can be challenging. Requiring staff to pull out equipment, sweep, degrease, deck scrub, and mop after a long, busy shift is a big ask. Requiring that they do it and clock out on time is nearly impossible, especially if using a bucket, ringer, and mop.

"You tend to do more spreading around than actually removing, especially if you don't change the mops on a regular basis or fail to dump the water frequently enough," explain Bill Griffin, president, Cleaning Consultants Inc in this article.

Advanced floor care tools can make a difference when cleaning for pest prevention. Machines like the UniVac® from Kaivac let employees tackle the job quickly and completely. Workers spread a degreasing/cleaning solution from the tank, agitate with the ergonomic speed spreader, and then vacuum the slurry up.

The tool is powerful enough to suck the grease and dirt up from porous grout yet nimble enough to maneuver under work benches and heavy equipment. No pre-sweeping or dry mopping required. The UniVac also works quickly, so staff can spend time on other important pest prevention jobs.

If you’re ready to add superior floor cleaning to your pest management plan contact Kaivac today.