Do you have a commercial kitchen? Have you considered a grease trap to prevent fats, oils, and grease from penetrating through the sewer lines? If you haven’t you should start planning for one.
If you are not cautious, fats oils and grease(FOG) can cause contamination and clogging of water management equipment and sewers. Once you control FOG in your commercial kitchen you reduce the chances of:
- Incurring losses due to emergency shutdown of your business due to sewer backups. You may also spend colossal amounts of money on plumbing and equipment repairs.
- Getting used by the public or your employees for exposure to raw sewage in the event of a sewer backup
- Getting sued by nearby establishments for sewer problems necessitated by your negligence
- Being charged for repairs conducted on sewer lines following your poor handling of fats, oil, and grease, or getting surcharges from the local sewer authority.
Proper management of fats, oils, and grease is vital for a socially responsible and successful restaurant operation. In this article, we shall look at the best kitchen practices you should adopt to prevent FOG in your commercial restaurant.
Grease Hoods & Filters
Grease hoods are some of the leading causes of restaurant fires. This is why you should clean your filters regularly. Ensure the sink filters connected to the grease trap are clean. If you prefer taking your grease filter to a spray car washing facility for thorough washing, make sure they are not washed near a storm sewer drain.
Fats, oil, and grease escapes through the kitchen exhaust system and can collect on the roof. If no action is taken, then this means the FOG will penetrate through the storm sewer in the event of rain.
Solid and Liquid Food Waste
Be cautious especially when washing your utensils to prevent solid and liquid food waste from penetrating through the drain. The following tips can help you achieve this.
- Do you have an automatic dishwasher? If you do, tun it only when it’s entirely full
- Ensure all your floor mats are washed in a mop sink as opposed to outside. This will prevent any grease deposits from entering the storm sewer
- Empty oils from frying and cookie pans in a metal can. Freeze it and dispose of the same when it gets full.
- Deposit all your used cooking oil or grease in a waste vegetable oil bin.
- Scrape food remains from utensils in the organic water recycling bin before washing them.
- Put your liquid food waste in a food recycling bin.
- Don’t throw wastewater along the pavement or in ditches last the FOG flows to the storm sewer.
Your Kitchen Floors
Remember to keep the kitchen floors clean and free from grease. This way, you protect your employees from potential accidents that can be caused by slippery floors. You need robust grease cleaning and removing product in your commercial kitchen which you can find in any of your local stores.
Sink Strainers
Sink strainers prevent foreign objects such as food particles from flowing down the drain. You can find an ideal sink strainer for your kitchen in your nearest local store and you can easily install and empty them.
Waste Cooking Oil
If you have waste cooking oil that you need to dispose of, you may want to avoid the following:
- Throwing oil down the septic system
- Disposing of oil in piles or compost bins
- Pouring oil in the toilet or down the drain
- Throwing hot oil in the trash
There are numerous ways of reusing waste cooking oil such as:
- Killing Weeds. If you realize that weeds are attacking your kitchen plants, put some waste cooking oil in a spray bottle and spray them to eliminate them from your garden.
- Recycling it to produce biodiesel fuel. Biodiesel is a petroleum alternative which emits less toxic greenhouse gases.
- Making food for your birds
- Making candles
Finally
Fats, oil, and grease buildup in your commercial restaurant can harm both your plumbing system and the environment. You can avoid these problems by adopted the practices discussed here.
