October 12, 2011 – Cintas Corporation has launched a new comprehensive Safe Floor Program designed specifically for the foodservice industry.
According to the U.S.-based National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI), floor safety is a significant concern with more than 3 million foodservice employees and over 1 million guests injured annually as a result of restaurant slips, falls, strains and sprains. Cintas' Safe Floor Program helps foodservice operators maximize the life of their flooring, improve safety and image, and aid in the reduction of risk.
"Safety is ingrained as a core value in our corporate culture and we are dedicated to the safety excellence of our partners and our customers," added Dan Braun, senior president of operations, with Cintas Corporation. "Using our health and safety expertise, we have developed a program that lets us deliver a safer foodservice workplace for everyone."
Cintas' Safe Floor Program for restaurants consists of four steps:
- Protect Cintas' mat system protects flooring in four major areas, including entrance, high risk, high traffic and productivity zones. The mats are certified "High Traction" by the National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI) to help reduce slips, trips and falls. Cintas provides a variety of mats including standard carpet, logo and message mats to help further extend a facility's brand inside and outside the building. Cintas assesses the customer's needs then creates a placement plan that includes scheduled delivery, pick up and cleaning. Cintas uses healthcare-quality wash formulas to disinfect the returned mats.
- Maintain Cintas helps foodservice operators maintain floors on a daily basis by providing the right tools and the right cleaning chemical for different floor surfaces. By designating cleaning tools for specific areas, customers can reduce cross contamination of soils like grease and dirt between zones. For example, tools used to clean restrooms would not be used to clean surfaces in the kitchen. The Signet cleaning chemical service developed in partnership with Diversey, comes complete with dilution control systems to ensure that the correct ratio of chemical to water is dispersed into the cleaning solution. Cintas installs the dilution control system and manages the chemical inventory. With proper training any employee can use the Signet system to help maintain safe floors.
- Deep clean Cintas provides periodic restorative cleaning services. The tile and carpet service uses a truck mounted, patent-pending high-pressure steam system to remove dirt and deep clean a variety of carpeted and hard-surface floor coverings. The deep cleaning process sanitizes to remove dirt, breaks down build-up and extracts all contaminants from the floor. The Sanis Ultraclean service uses custom portable equipment to provide floor cleaning for restroom and kitchen hard surface floors.
- Train An educated employee is a core element of a safe floor program. The Cintas First Aid and Safety division provides training programs on topics like established safety protocols, cleaning operations and inspection procedures. For a successful safe floor program, workers must understand the proper application methods for the chemical products and receive proper training and testing on their general responsibilities. For example, employees should know what daily activities they must complete to minimize the risk of an employee or customer injury via slip and fall.
"Slips and falls are the largest source of general liability insurance claims within the restaurant industry," said Brian Garry, Cintas' senior director of foodservice. "Our Safe Floor Program gives foodservice management both the daily items for use by their staff and the professional services requiring trained experts."
For more information, visit www.cintas.com/safefloormats.
Print this page
