Have you already looked at how to stop them getting wet?

Hi matelot

To follow up on Kate's comment, yes, but perhaps there are ways of reducing how wet the drain covers get, how often that happens and to dry them off more quickly.

The idea of etching 10mm thick drain covers that have fork trucks running over them seems like a recipe for an overturning fork truck. You would be, in effect, deliberately pre-weakening the covers.

+ if you etch them, there could be a build up of foodstuffs, so defeating the food safety reason for having shiny stainless steel covers in the first place. 

This is really one for the technical experts.

Just in addition to Alan's suggestion - there are plenty of heavy duty anti-slip tapes/floor coverings available with varying levels of aggregate in them to provide varying grades of grip (most of which are waterproof and can be used for external use). Alternatively there are anti-slip paints available. Heskins and Rocol are a couple of manufacturers worth a look at to see if they have anythign suitable. You will also have seen the heavier duty yellow stair nosings (GRP - glass reinforced plastic) which are a more substantial and longer term option that can be screwed into place (not sure if you can get flat sheets of these but if so you could cut to size to cover the drain lids)? 

As Peter said, this is really one to engage with the Technical (food safety) Team.

I did a few years in Food production in the distant past and there was a constant balancing act between the roughness of the, mainly, resin flooring.  Rough enough to prevent slips but not so rough that the bugs couldn't shelter and hide from the hygiene team.

The large multi-site group I worked for did come up with a "roughness" standard that was measured with a little orange meter that we called Kenny after the Sout Park character it vaguely resembled.

Originally Posted by: INortonAVI

Who is meant by the Technical Team? 

Googling technical food safety team brings me results for the food standards agency.

Is there an IOSH technical team or am I missing something here?

The envirnoment our operatives work in means this is one of the things we are trying to balance, and any source of advice would be appreciated.

Nothing to do with IOSH or even Occupational Safety.

In the food industry the food safety people in a food production business are normally called the Technical Team often headed by a Technical Manager.  I dont know the reason for this, just that it is the convention (in the UK at least).

In this case, the rougher you make the surface (to reduce slip potential) the harder it will be to clean therefore the more bacteria will potentially grow.  The food safety people (Technical) will not be happy with this as their primary purpose is to reduce the bacteria load in food production environments.  Hence there is a conflict that needs to be resolved.  The food safety requirements will normally trump the occupational safety requirements in food production businesses on the basis that food safety failures can lead to multiple (potentially thousands) incidents whearas occupational safety incidents of this nature would be at most likely be in single figures.