The hygienic surface concept embodies the key criteria and recommendations that facilities managers need to consider when designing, installing and maintaining a sanitised environment.

The walls play an important role in this concept, as getting this area of the site right will help to minimise contamination risks and ensure an unsoiled, functional and fit-for-purpose setting.

Food and beverage manufacturers and healthcare facilities in particular need to specify wall coating solutions that will maintain a sanitary surface over extended periods of time despite challenging working conditions that can include wear from patients and staff, chemical attacks, spilled food and drink, frequent cleaning with hot water and impacts from equipment.

The Food Safety & Hygiene (England) Regulations 2013 outlines the properties that wall coatings need to meet to provide a hygienic surface within the food and beverage industry.

These regulations state that walls must be “easy to clean and, where necessary, to disinfect”. It adds that wall surfaces must “be made of materials that are impervious (i.e. do not allow fluid to pass through), non-absorbent, washable and non-toxic” as well as being “smooth, up to a height appropriate for the work carried on”.

To provide developers and facilities managers with a wall coating that meets these criteria, Flowcrete UK has developed Peran WW, a water based hygienic sealer that can be applied within clean room environments to provide a coloured gloss finish.

This two component, solvent free and vapour permeable wall coating has been embraced by the food industry and has been utilised by producers, distributors, retailers and restaurants including Linzer’s Bakery, Gate Gourmet, ASDA and Denmark’s Blue Planet Aquarium.

Peran WW adheres to NHS England’s guidelines for walls, which states that as well as being “smooth, cleanable impervious surfaces”, clinical areas should also ensure that walls are “easily accessed” and that they “will not be physically affected by detergents and disinfectants”.

Peran WW is easy to install, which means that developers don’t have to invest as much time and energy into coating the site’s walls as they would with alternative materials. Its roller applied installation method can even be carried out on damp substrates and its low odour formulation minimises on-site disruption, allowing for earlier follow-on trades and a swifter construction timetable.