Keeping the floor of your walk-in freezer clean is crucial, whether you operate a virtual kitchen, grocery store or industrial bakery warehouse. While this article focuses on cleaning your freezer floor, it’s important to first understand how these floors in walk-ins become dirty in the first place. The combination of constant activity and environmental factors makes maintaining a spotless freezer floor a unique challenge.
How Your Floors Get Dirty
One of the biggest culprits is moisture. Freezer doors that are left open too long allow warm, humid air to enter, which quickly condenses and turns into frost or ice. Ice can build up, then melt and drip from the ceiling, creating puddles on the floor. These moisture issues, along with daily maintenance challenges, are common headaches for anyone managing a busy walk-in freezer.
Beyond moisture, everyday foot traffic and equipment bring their own challenges. Employees unknowingly track in dirt, dust, and bits of debris from outside, while carts and dollies leave trails of grime picked up from other areas of the store. Food spills and packaging debris—from broken or open boxes—further contribute to the mess. A bag of unsealed vegetables falls over, no one sweeps it up and the mess slowly gets pressed into the floor throughout the day.
Steps to Clean
Here’s KPS Global simple and food-safe guide for cleaning your walk-in freezer floor.
1. Suit Up: Start with PPE: Slip on your non-slip freezer-safe shoes and insulated gloves. Safety first—you’re working in a sub-zero, slippery environment.
2. Dry Sweep: Grab a stiff-bristle broom and do a thorough dry sweep. Get rid of crumbs, food bits and loose debris before introducing any liquid cleaner.
3. Choose the Right Cleaner: Skip the abrasives. Instead, use a food-safe, no-rinse, freezer-approved cleaner.
Others have had success with Cool Clean Freezer Cleaner, a non-toxic, like liquid option that works even in sub-zero temperatures. No need to shut down the freezer. Just mop on, mop off, mop up and it cuts through dirt, food spills, and grime with ease.
Pro tip: Make sure you mop up all excess liquid. Your goal is a floor that’s clean and completely dry.
4. Hit the Forgotten Zones: Corners. Under shelving. Behind pallets. These are the secret dirt dens. Make a habit of checking and cleaning these areas every time.
5. Never use water or liquid that can freeze: Repeat after me. “No water in the freezer. Ever.” It will freeze instantly and turn your cleaning session into a skating rink.
6. Mind the Food Safety Rules: If you need to move food during cleaning, remember the FDA/USDA cold chain guidelines and frozen food cannot be left out of a freezer or cooler for more than 2 hours.
A clean walk-in freezer floor isn’t just nice to have it’s critical for safety, sanitation and smooth operations. With the right tools and a few good habits, you’ll keep the spills, slush, and sticky disasters under control.
Now go forth and mop like a PRO because your freezer floor deserves it.
Replace your flooring?
KPS Global experts have been providing high quality floor panel options for walk-ins for over 75 years. KPS Global designs and manufactures many types of walk-in floors including foot traffic, hand truck, pallet jack and super floors. Our customizable walk-in floors are tailored to meet the demands of any commercial business including convenience stores, breweries, grocery stores, commercial warehouses and more. Contact us to learn more about our custom design options including finishes and ramps.
