Table of Contents:
Table of Contents:
04-09-2025
Hygiene isn’t just a guideline in food and beverage manufacturing — it’s essential. To keep products safe and operations running smoothly, facilities must be built with materials and design features that support cleanability and durability. This includes seamless connections between floors and critical elements like curbs, coves, and drains. Curbs, which are raised barriers where the floor meets the wall, offer added protection by resisting heavy impact, moisture, and bacterial growth.
Seamless integration with resinous flooring and coves or wall glazes ensures a continuous, easy-to-clean surface that helps eliminate contamination risks. But with so many products on the market, achieving a true Total Hygienic Solution requires more than guesswork — it takes expertise and thorough testing. That’s where Stonhard comes in.
The Critical Role of a Sanitary Design in Food Processing Facilities
Bacteria thrive in hidden spaces — cracks around drains, porous walls, or improperly sealed flooring. This can create significant hygiene risks and lead to product contamination, costly recalls, and even harm to consumers. The key to solving this? Designing facilities where every element works together seamlessly to prevent bacterial growth and ensure cleanability.
To address this, a collaboration between Stonhard, Polysto, and Blücher led to comprehensive testing of resinous floors, polymer composite curbs, and rounded, hygienic, stainless-steel drains. Together, these products form a complete system that enhances hygiene in food and beverage environments. Experts from each company formed the Hygienic Design Committee with the goal of evaluating the effectiveness of each product as well as their connections with one another in contributing to the overall improvement in food manufacturing plant hygiene.
Stonhard urethane flooring installed seamlessly with Blücher stainless steel drain. Both carry HACCP International certification.
Why Resinous Flooring?
Resinous flooring is a top choice for food and beverage facilities, thanks to its seamless, impervious properties. Unlike traditional floors, Stonhard's resinous floors resist water, chemicals, and bacterial growth while offering a durable, easy-to-clean surface. Stonhard floors formulated for food and beverage spaces are certified food safe by HACCP International and meet global food safety standards, offering peace of mind alongside high performance.
Stonhard floors resist harsh cleaning chemicals, hot water washdowns, and heavy traffic.
Prefabricated Curbing in Food Processing Environments
Traditional concrete curbs can absorb moisture, crack under pressure, and harbor bacteria. The alternative? Polysto’s prefabricated polymer composite curbs. These curbs are chemical-resistant, and impact resistant, and water resistant — making them easy to clean and long-lasting. By creating durable, seamless connections with resinous flooring, they completely eliminate contamination-prone weak points.
In food & beverage facilities, durable and seamless curbs provide a clean, sanitary solution designed to withstand the demands of food processing environments.
Example of concrete curb with resinous mortar. Signs of impact and damage. Concrete exposed to water will absorb and repel the covering resinous top layer and create a perfect harbor for bacterial growth.
Drain Design That Supports Hygiene
Poorly designed drainage systems can be hotspots for water pooling and bacterial growth. Blücher’s hygienic round drains, built with stainless steel and advanced sealing features, resolve these problems. Rounded contours eliminate sharp corners where bacteria typically hide, ensuring efficient water flow and long-term durability. Their compatibility with resinous flooring makes them an essential piece of the hygienic design puzzle.
Properly installed trench and point drains help remove liquids efficiently, reducing bacteria growth and contamination risks.
Investigation: Can Total Hygienic Design Be Achieved in a Food & Beverage Facility?
The Hygienic Design Committee conducted research to investigate a total hygienic design for the food and beverage industry that creates a complete and seamless surface starting at the drain connection to the floor, all the way to the floor connection at the curbs. This is best described as a “bathtub effect” as the goal is to essentially create a single-functioning unit in which water and waste are properly disposed from the facility and leave no place for harmful contaminants to hide.
Read in detail about the rigorous testing conducted and review the test results, conclusions, and recommendations. Download the free white paper, A Total Hygienic Solution – Floor, Drain, and Curb Research.
Why It Matters for Your Food Manufacturing Facility
Food and beverage manufacturers face relentless challenges to maintaining their 24/7 operations. A comprehensive hygienic system not only protects products but also ensures compliance, minimizes risks, and increases operational efficiency.
Failure to invest in proper hygienic design can result in costly downtime, damaged brands, and violations of food safety regulations. Opting for a total hygienic solution helps future-proof facilities, ensuring long-term performance and safety.
Stonhard’s hygienic floors eliminate grout lines where bacteria can thrive, ensuring a cleaner food and beverage facility.
Take The Next Step
At Stonhard, we specialize in creating seamless, HACCP International-certified flooring systems designed to work with industry-leading hygienic curbing and drainage solutions. Reach out today to learn how a Total Hygienic Solution can transform your facility.
Call 800.257.7953 or visit www.Stonhard.com to safeguard your operations, protect your brand, and optimize safety in every corner of your facility.
About Stonhard
Stonhard is the unprecedented world leader in manufacturing and installing high-performance polymer floor, wall and lining systems. Stonhard maintains 300 territory managers and 200 application teams worldwide who will work with you on design specification, project management, final walk-through and service after the sale. Stonhard’s single-source warranty covers both products and installation. Contact us to learn more about our precision installation methods and specialized products.
About The Author
Scott Garstka
Senior Director Global Accounts
Scott Garstka is the Senior Director of Stonhard's Global Accounts Program and has been with Stonhard since 1998. Scott has expertise in industrial markets and specialties in global agreements, partnership negotiations, and national contract coordination. He also provides architectural specifications and the development of hygienic standards for clients. Scott holds a B.A. in Economics.
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