Dry Floor Products Won’t Slip Up

In order to use a dry floor treatment as a floor sanitizer in a USDA or FDA inspected plant, the product must be registered with the EPA with specific claims as a “floor sanitizer.” Under the FIFRA, a product must be registered with the EPA if it is intended for “preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest.” Further clarifying, any agent used to “disinfect, sanitize, reduce, or mitigate growth or development of microbiological organisms” on hard surfaces is considered a pesticide and must be registered with the EPA.

To date, only two products have submitted the required efficacy data to kill organisms on floors and received EPA approval as floor sanitizers: a powder-based upon a proprietary PerQuat formulation (Sterilex Corp., Hunt Valley, Md.) and a blended QAC-based bead (Ecolab Inc., St. Paul, Minn.).

QAC based floor sanitizers differ from available dry QAC floor cleaners in that QAC sanitizer manufacturers have submitted the required efficacy data to the EPA to demonstrate at least a 3 log reduction to kill food pathogens such as Listeria, Salmonella, and E. coli on floors. QAC based floor sanitizers have broad spectrum activity on clean floors but are less effective in areas of high organic load such as when mixed with dairy residues or if biofilms are present on a surface.

Another product approved by the EPA as a floor sanitizer is a proprietary dry formulation based upon PerQuat technology. PerQuat based products have been marketed for several years in liquid form as hard surface disinfectants and biofilm removal agents, and that same technology is now offered in a dry form for floor sanitization. This dry product contains both percarbonates as well as QAC components to provide broad spectrum sanitizing activity in the presence of organic soils as well as residual activity. This product has EPA approval to kill organisms such as Listeria, Salmonella, and E. Coli.

If your HACCP plan includes the use of a dry floor sanitizer to prevent pathogens from surviving on the floor, one of these two products must be used in order to be in compliance. If you intend to use your existing dry floor product to kill microorganisms, make sure to ask the manufacturer for a copy of the EPA registered label with use directions for “floor sanitization.” Floor sanitizers should always be applied as per the use instructions on the product label.

Product Attributes

Dry floor treatments are available in a number of forms. Most dry products are either sold as beads, large granules, or as free flowing powders. Beads and large granules are generally less dusty than free flowing powders but can make the floor slippery. Free flowing powders, on the other hand, are commonly designed to crush when walked on or when a forklift drives over the treated area, and should aid with traction. In addition, unlike larger beads, smaller granules and free flowing powders are more likely to fit into small cracks in concrete floors, treating difficult to reach areas.

A number of dry floor products are marketed as “time release.” Dry floor products are typically reapplied once most of the applied powder has been activated by moisture and/or are no longer on a surface. Time between re-application varies depending upon the amount of water on the floor, the amount of moisture in the air, the size of the dry product’s bead or granule, and the microbial/soil load on the floor. In general, the larger the bead, the longer it will take for the bead to dissolve in moisture.

Some dry products are available with a dye to help differentiate the cleaner/sanitizer from edible ingredients. If choosing a dry product with a color, it may be best to trial the product in a small inconspicuous area to ensure that the dye in the product does not stain the floor surface.

Application

Unlike liquid cleaners and sanitizers which are typically applied as a spray, foam, or soak during set sanitation shifts, dry floor treatments often remain in place during production, providing residual activity between sanitation shifts. Therefore, the use of dry floor treatments offers particular benefit for plants with extended production runs or very dry environments where wet cleaning is seldom performed, if at all.