Safe Quality Foods Standards Flooring

1 out of 4 safe quality foods standards certified companies are asking their suppliers to achieve certification.  If you have not been asked yet by customers, you most likely will be asked in the near future.  Getting started on your certification will keep your company competitive, and qualified to continue to work with your current customers.   SQF approved flooring is required for facilities that are trying to obtain level 2 or higher certification.  Puma-Crete^® flooring meets SQF requirements of a “dense impact resistant material that can be effectively graded, drained, are impervious to liquid and easily cleaned”.

Puma-Crete^® is a type of seamless urethane flooring , known as urethane mortar flooring.  It withstands decades of severe abuse in the same environments where ” epoxy floors“, and other conventional flooring fail.   Puma-Crete^®  is installed by our own company crews.  We have been serving the food & beverage processing industry with epoxy and urethane flooring, for over 30 years.  We provide a solid 5 year warranty, and guarantee that the floor shall meet your food inspection standards.  This shall be the last floor that you need!

EPF also serves food and beverage processors as expert flooring consultants.  Since we are a vertically integrated company, we are able to control all aspects of your flooring project.  We furnish many related services related to industrial flooring.  This includes new concrete slabs, trench drains, slope to drain underlayments, cove base and curbs.  Of course, surface prep and installation of PUMA-CRETE^®  is included
EPF is a true one source vendor for SQF flooring!

Safe Quality Foods Standards Accepted Flooring Audits & Certifications

Puma-Crete^® flooring  was developed for food and beverage processing facilities.  It is accepted by all of the major food manufacturing inspection agencies. Sanitary flooring is part of a thorough HACCP compliance program.    It meets GFSI guidelines for SQF  certification.  It is safe quality foods standards approved flooring.  Furthermore, it is USDA FDA FSIS approved and helps ensure compliance with the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).   Other industry certifications include IFS, FSSC 22000, and BRC.

It does not support the growth of bacterial organisms, and is classified as antimicrobial flooring.  It will also serve as effective clean room flooring.

Puma-Crete^® will help you pass your inspections with flying colors !

About Safe Quality Foods Standards Regulations – Food Safe Floors

SQF  (developed by SQFI – Safe Quality Foods Institute) is a quality management system used to verify the level of implementation of a specific food safety and quality plan by a food manufacturer/supplier.  Verifications are performed by a third-party audit.  All auditors are certified and registered by the Food Marketing Institute, the entity that administers the SQF system.

Level 1 covers food safety fundamentals; at Level 2, certified HACCP food safety plans are recognized; and at Level 3, comprehensive food safety and quality management system.

Overlaying Existing Brick or Tile Floors

SQF levels 2 and 3 do not permit brick or tile flooring (due to grout joints, which may harbor bacteria).  EPF can often prepare the surface and overlay brick & tile flooring.  This may prevent having to perform complete tile removal.  Please contact a project estimator for more details!

Safe Quality Foods Standards General Standards

Floors and drains will always have a higher rate of contamination than food contact surfaces, and fortunately, floors and drains are somewhat removed from direct product contact. However, the frequent presence of Listeria organisms in floors and drains does create an ever-present potential threat of cross contamination to food contact surfaces in the post-lethality environment. It is recommended that processors work with sanitation suppliers to develop a sound floor and drain sanitation program if they don’t already have one in place.

Such a program may include:

1. Professional installation of SQF approved flooring, such as Puma-Crete^®  flooring.
2. More routine scrubbing of floors and drains
3. Application of high levels quat sanitizers
4. Limiting use of high pressure hoses (which create aerosols, which transport bacteria).
5. Installation of foot baths.
6. Altering/limiting employee foot traffic where possible.

SQF Flooring Requirements

Here are excerpts from the SQF Code  (Edition 10)

3.2.2 Floors, Drains and Waste Traps
3.2.2.1 Floors shall be constructed of smooth, dense impact resistant material that can be effectively graded, drained, are impervious to liquid and easily cleaned.
3.2.2.2 When water is used, floors shall be sloped to floor drains at gradients suitable to allow the effective removal of all overflow or waste water under normal working conditions.
3.2.2.3 Drains shall be constructed and located so they can be easily cleaned and not present a hazard.
3.2.3.2 Wall-to-wall and wall-to-floor junctions shall be designed to be cleaned and sealed to prevent the accumulation of debris.

Durable Floor Materials

PUMA-CRETE^® is a trowel applied food processing floor.  It is a urethane mortar floor, which is designed to handle impact, heavy traffic loads, scraping and gouging.  Installed at 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness, it is suitable almost any area within a food plant.  These areas include traffic aisles, tank areas, processing rooms, coolers, loading docks and any other heavy duty area requiring a permanent, cleanable, slip resistant finish.

Thermal Shock Capabilities

Typically, many areas within industrial food and beverage processing plant encounter hot spills and wash downs.  Processing functions, cleaning and sanitizing, chillers, coolers, freezers and ovens all can contribute to floor thermal shock conditions. PUMA-CRETE^® handles boiling water getting dumped onto the floor, hot oils from fryers, washdowns with boiling hot water.  Even direct steam hitting the floor will not harm it.  For some types of extreme thermal shock conditions, such as liquid nitrogen, we may recommend up to 1/2 inch thickness. Contact our project estimators for more information.

Chemical Resistance of Puma-Crete^®

Puma-Crete^® floors have excellent chemical resistance to a wide range of chemicals encountered in a typical food or beverage processing plant.  It is resistant to typical food sanitizers including CIP chemicals, oils, acids and caustics.

Slip Resistance for SQF Approved Floors

Food processing floors, and beverage flooring often have wet conditions.  This may include food ingredients including oils.  When combined with water, floors can be very slippery. PUMA-CRETE^® has an integral slip resistant texture.  Since the aggregate is dispersed through the full thickness of the materials, slip resistance will never wear off.  If you need custom textures in different areas of the facility, we can vary the anti slip floor texture from smooth (for dry areas) to very rough in areas with oils, grease and water.

Installation of SQF Certified Flooring

EPF is much more than a food processing floor contractor.  Some of our sub specialties include slope to drain underlayments, new floor drains, new concrete slabs or curbs.

Here is how our process works. First of all, we provide expert consulting on your concrete floor needs.  This includes identifying operations which will be performed in your areas, and a detailed needs analysis.  If this is new construction, we shall help with floor specifications. For renovation, we survey the existing slab, and determine means of removal and prep of existing surfaces.  We determination the time allotted for the construction, potential critical path issues, and setup an installation schedule.

Your EPF project team consists of a project manager, a site manager, team leaders, and 6-12 flooring technicians. We control all aspects of the project. There are no sub-contractors or third parties involved.  Our team follows rigid installation checklists, developed from over 30 years of food and beverage processing experience.   With over $1million invested in special surface prep and installation equipment, you can rest assured that your project will be done once, done right!

Check out the advantages we offer, over our competition !
Top 10 PUMA-CRETE® Advantages

Food & Beverage Processing Floors – home

For more information, including the color availability, technical properties, or other properties of our SQF approved flooring, please contact a project consultant at 1.800.808.7773