Case study: epoxy floor smell in food kitchens

Bakery Kitchen for 30 Cafés Lays New Epoxy Floor; Butter and Bread Soak Up Odor, 12 Branches Return Goods Over Chemical Smell

When epoxy floor smell in food kitchens seeps into butter, flour and cream, the problem does not stay in the kitchen. It ends up in the display cases of every branch. Here is a costly lesson, and how ozone paint odor removal with on-site TVOC measurement helped turn it around.

When Buttery Croissants Started Smelling Like Solvent: The Story of Soft Flour Bakery

This story is a composite based on situations we commonly see; names and places are fictional.

A floor upgrade timed for the holidays

Natcha, known to everyone as "Nat", is 38 and runs the central kitchen for Soft Flour, a café brand with 30 branches across Bangkok and its suburbs. The kitchen, about 600 square meters in Bang Phli, Samut Prakan, turns out croissants, whole-wheat loaves, chiffon cakes and cream puffs, roughly 9,000 pieces a day. Delivery vans start rolling out of the loading bay at 3 a.m. every night.

The old tiled floor was cracked in several places, and the grout lines had turned black beyond scrubbing. So Nat planned to use the Songkran holiday, April 12 to 16, to rip out the tiles and install a seamless epoxy floor, the kind widely used in food production because it is easy to clean. The contractor finished the final coat on the evening of the 15th. The floor was glossy and dry enough to walk on, right on schedule.

The first shift: the hotter the ovens, the stronger the smell

On the evening of April 17, the first shift walked in to a sharp, stinging smell, like nail polish remover mixed with ammonia, hanging over the whole room. The contractor said, "Fire up the ovens for a while and it will clear." So production started as usual. But once the six-deck ovens reached 190°C and the kitchen warmed up, the smell got worse, not better.

That night Somporn, the head baker with 14 years at the company, had to step outside for fresh air three times because of a dull headache and a burning nose. A new hire on the cream line complained of red eyes and nausea. Nat propped open the loading bay and brought in four more industrial fans, but the vans still had to leave on time. Every tray was boxed in a room thick with the same smell.

The messages in the branch managers' group chat

On April 18 the first message landed in the LINE group. The Ari branch reported that the croissants had "a weird smell, like paint or plastic." By the afternoon, the Siam and Bang Na branches said the same thing. The buttercream in the Swiss rolls had an off note on the tongue too.

On the 19th, seven branches sent products back. On the 20th, it was 12 branches. Over three days, about 2,600 pieces were returned or thrown away. That did not include 180 kilograms of real butter stored in a chiller next to the line, which had been opened and closed all night. When they opened a box and sniffed, it smelled exactly like the floor.

Worse still, someone posted a photo of a croissant in a Facebook bread lovers' group with the caption, "Smells like thinner. Did they change the recipe?" It was shared hundreds of times, and some branches asked to pause deliveries altogether.

Five days of trying everything

Nat tried every fix she could think of. She kept every door open overnight, set out 40 bags of bamboo charcoal and dozens of trays of baking soda, and rented three extra air purifiers. Five days later, the smell was still clinging to table covers, aprons, pipe insulation and the gypsum ceiling. Every night the ovens came on, it came right back.

On the night of April 21, she added up the losses, then typed into her phone: "how to get rid of epoxy floor smell in a food kitchen." She knew that one more week of this could do damage to a seven-year-old brand that no apology would fix.

Epoxy Floor Smell in Food Kitchens Hurts a Bakery Business More Than You Think

Many people treat the smell from new flooring as a short-term nuisance. In a kitchen that produces food every day, though, a chemical smell is a direct business risk. It hits your people, your products and your customers' trust all at once.

1. The health of a team that works a full shift in the room

Volatile compounds from building materials can cause irritation, especially in hot rooms with limited airflow. Common symptoms include:

• Headaches and dizziness, and feeling foggy on the job
• Eye, nose and throat irritation, with more coughing or sneezing
• Nausea, fatigue and poor concentration, which is dangerous around hot ovens and machinery
• Flare-ups for people with allergies or asthma; pregnant staff and those with health conditions deserve extra care

Long-term exposure is something to avoid from the start, not something to wait out until everyone "gets used to it."

2. Money leaking out every night

• Returned and discarded goods, plus expensive ingredients like real butter and cream that have already absorbed the odor
• Wasted delivery runs, overtime to re-bake, and rented equipment that did not work
• Lost sales when display cases sit empty and customers walk out to another café

3. A brand reputation built over years

In the bakery business, aroma is the first thing you sell. Customers remember which café has croissants that smell of butter, and they remember even better which one smelled strange. A single social media post can spread faster than your team can explain.

4. Trust between the central kitchen and the branches

Branch managers are on the front line, taking complaints face to face. When product problems repeat day after day, the relationship between the central kitchen and the stores gets tense, and morale inside the kitchen drops fast.

What Is That Smell, Really?

A "dry" epoxy floor has not stopped off-gassing

An epoxy floor is made by mixing epoxy resin with a hardener, and many hardeners are amine-based, with a sharp, ammonia-like smell. Some systems also use solvent-based primers or topcoats, and thinner is often used to clean tools during the job. All of these release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air.

The surface may be walkable within a day, but the curing reaction inside continues for several days, often around a week or longer, depending on the product, thickness and temperature. During that time the floor keeps slowly releasing vapors. This is called off-gassing.

Oven heat speeds up the release

As a general rule, the warmer it gets, the faster volatile compounds evaporate. A bakery with several ovens running at once is effectively warming up the new floor and everything around it. That is why the smell grew stronger every time the ovens were switched on.

Butter, cream and flour are perfect odor sponges

Anyone who has kept butter in a fridge next to something pungent knows that fats absorb odors very easily. Many odor molecules dissolve readily into fat, so butter, buttercream and whipped cream pick up smells from the surrounding air quickly. Flour, icing sugar and airy bread have an enormous surface area exposed to that air.

On top of that, the smell soaks into fabric, gypsum ceilings, pipe insulation, cardboard boxes and baking trays, then slowly releases back into the room. Even after the floor itself calms down, these materials act as a backup source that keeps epoxy floor smell in food kitchens hanging around far longer than expected.

Why the Usual Fixes Fall Short in a Bakery Kitchen

Every method Nat tried makes sense, and none of them is wrong. They simply do not match the scale of the problem or the reality of a kitchen that has to produce every night.

1. Opening doors and running fans does help ventilate, but it can take days or even weeks before the smell fades noticeably. A kitchen that ships to 30 branches every morning cannot wait that long, and open doors invite dust and insects into a food production area.
2. Air fresheners and fragrance sprays only mask the smell. The VOCs are still there, and in a food kitchen the fragrance itself can end up in the pastries, which just adds a second problem.
3. Bamboo charcoal and baking soda absorb a little odor in small spaces like a shoe cabinet or a fridge. Their capacity is tiny compared with a 600-square-meter room, and once saturated they do almost nothing.
4. Home air purifiers are designed for small rooms. Their air turnover is not enough for a large kitchen with a high ceiling, and carbon filters saturate quickly when faced with heavy vapor loads.
5. Mopping the floor again and again keeps it clean, but it does not stop vapors coming from material that is still curing, and it can add a layer of detergent smell to the air.
6. Waiting until everyone "gets used to it" is risky. Our noses adapt to a constant smell quickly, so staff may think it is gone, while the butter and pastries keep absorbing it. Customers at the counter, smelling it for the first time, notice immediately.

The Solution: WHD Ozone Paint Odor Removal with the Master Ozone Generator

When ventilation and masking cannot keep up, a central kitchen needs something that breaks down odor at the source, works fast, covers a large area and can be measured. That is where the ozone paint odor and chemical residue removal service from World Health Disinfection (WHD) comes in.

How ozone works

The Master Ozone Generator releases ozone (O₃) into a closed space, mimicking the way nature purifies air. Ozone is a highly reactive oxidizer, so it reacts with and breaks the molecular bonds of odor molecules, chemical vapors (VOCs) and germs right at the source. The smell is destroyed, not covered up.

After the cycle, ozone naturally decomposes back into oxygen (O₂), so no chemical residue is left on surfaces. For a food production area, that matters a great deal: nothing new is added to the environment.

TVOC measured before and after, so there is no guesswork

What sets WHD apart is measuring TVOC (Total Volatile Organic Compounds) before and after treatment, using an AM1310 meter backed by calibration documents (a KIMO PT100 SC0110 adjusting certificate and a BR-SMART certificate of calibration). WHD is one of the few providers in Thailand that shows TVOC reduction results measured at real job sites.

For a central kitchen, those readings are something you can share with branch managers to show that the problem has been handled properly, rather than just a feeling that "it's probably fine now."

Fast, thorough and scheduled around production

Because ozone is a gas, it reaches dead corners, the space under stainless-steel tables, behind chillers and above the ceiling far better than wiping or odor absorbers can. WHD job sites are typically ready to use within about 2 hours after the process ends, so the team can work during the kitchen's downtime without shutting production for days.

10 Reasons Food Kitchens Choose WHD Ozone Odor Treatment

1. It destroys odor at the source instead of masking it

Ozone breaks apart the molecules that cause the smell, so the odor is genuinely reduced. Fragrances only layer a new scent over the old one.

2. No chemical residue

Once the cycle ends, ozone reverts to oxygen. It leaves no film or new smell on prep tables, baking trays or walls, and your team can carry on with its normal sanitation routine.

3. Clear before-and-after TVOC readings

WHD's ozone chemical residue removal includes TVOC measurement with calibrated equipment, giving management real data for deciding when to restart production.

4. Built for large spaces

Central kitchens, food plants, ingredient warehouses and chemical facilities are exactly the kind of spaces where ordinary methods fall short. The Master Ozone Generator is designed to cover large areas quickly.

5. It reaches places a cloth never will

The smell is not just on the floor. It hides in gaps behind cabinets, under shelving and above the ceiling, and gaseous ozone spreads into all of them.

6. Quick return to use

Many sites are ready within about 2 hours after the process, which suits businesses that cannot keep a kitchen closed for long.

7. Handles many types of construction odors

Beyond epoxy and PU odors, ozone paint smell removal also tackles acrylic and oil-based paint, thinner, lacquer, industrial adhesives and the smell of newly renovated buildings.

8. Helps with mustiness and germs at the same time

Hot, humid kitchens often build up musty smells and mold in corners. Ozone treatment helps reduce odors, germs and mold in closed spaces during the same cycle.

9. Trained technicians and a clear process

WHD technicians assess the site, seal off the area, make sure no people, pets or plants remain inside, and remove or cover ozone-sensitive items as needed.

10. Experience across very different sites

From condo bedrooms, living rooms and office meeting rooms to car paint spraying jobs and chemical industrial plants, that experience helps the team plan ozone chemical odor treatment to fit each kitchen.

Before and After Ozone Treatment in the Central Kitchen

How the WHD Team Works

1. Site survey and baseline TVOC check. Assess room size, odor sources and record starting TVOC readings.
2. Prepare the area. Everyone, including pets and plants, leaves the space. Food and ingredients are moved out, and ozone-sensitive items such as natural rubber parts, artworks or certain electronics are removed or covered.
3. Seal the space and set up the Master Ozone Generator. Close doors, windows and air leaks.
4. Run a cycle sized to the room volume. The cycle is set for the size of the area and the strength of the odor, with nobody inside.
5. Decomposition and ventilation. Ozone is left to break down into oxygen, then the area is ventilated before anyone re-enters.
6. Re-check. Measure TVOC again and assess the odor against the baseline.
7. Hand back the space. Results are shared with the client, and the area is typically ready to use within about 2 hours.

How the Story Ended for Soft Flour

On the morning of April 22, Nat called WHD. Technicians surveyed the site the same day, measured TVOC in the kitchen and the ingredient store, and scheduled treatment for that night after the last van left. The kitchen team moved out all ingredients and discarded the butter and pastries that had already absorbed the smell.

After the ozone cycle and ventilation, the team measured again and saw a clear drop in TVOC. The sharp smell that used to surge with the ovens had faded to the point of barely being noticeable. The kitchen cleaned its food-contact surfaces as usual, then baked a test batch of 60 croissants for five branch managers to smell and taste first.

Within three days, most branches were back to receiving deliveries as normal. Nat shared the readings with the branch managers' group. Not all of the early losses could be recovered, but what came back was confidence.

Preventing Epoxy Floor Smell in Food Kitchens Next Time

• Choose low-VOC materials. Ask your contractor about low-emission systems suitable for food production areas.
• Allow proper curing time. Do not schedule the floor to finish the night before reopening; follow the manufacturer's curing guidance.
• Move out ingredients and packaging first. Especially butter, cream, flour and cardboard boxes.
• Book ozone treatment before restarting production. Build it into the plan from day one, with TVOC measured before and after.
• Bake a test batch before shipping. Ask people who have not been in the kitchen to smell and taste it, since the kitchen crew may have gone nose-blind.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do we need to leave the area during treatment?

Yes. All people, pets and plants must be out while the machine runs. Ozone treatment is carried out by trained technicians in a closed, unoccupied space, and you re-enter only after the ozone has decomposed and the area has been ventilated.

How long does it take?

It depends on the size of the space and the strength of the odor. Many areas are ready to use within about 2 hours after the process, so kitchens that run daily can book it during downtime.

Does ozone leave any residue?

No. Ozone naturally decomposes back into oxygen, leaving no chemical residue.

What size of space is it suitable for?

Anything from a condo bedroom, restaurant or meeting room to a central kitchen, warehouse or factory. The cycle is set according to the actual room volume.

What should we do with food and ingredients?

Move all food, ingredients and packaging out before work starts. Anything that has already absorbed a chemical smell should not be put back into use.

Will the epoxy smell disappear 100%?

Ozone treatment clearly helps reduce and break down chemical odors, with TVOC readings as the measure. Results depend on the material, how far it has cured and the amount of vapor, and the team will give you an honest assessment.

Related Articles and Resources

• Ozone Cleaning Service
• Disinfection Spraying Service
• Ozone Disinfection Machines
• US EPA: Volatile Organic Compounds' Impact on Indoor Air Quality
• WHO: Air Quality, Energy and Health

Is a New Floor or Paint Smell Lingering in Your Kitchen?

Don't wait for customers to tell you. Let WHD survey the site, measure TVOC and break down the odor with ozone before you restart production.

Call 065-556-6294 · LINE @whd268 · Email worldhealthdisinfection@gmail.com
88/268 Kanlapaphruek Rd., Bang Khae, Bangkok 10160, Thailand