Food Oil and Grease (FOG) Best Management Practices

A lesson on the best management practices for grease traps and interceptors

Grease traps and interceptors are essential for owners of restaurants and eateries all around the world. These simple yet effective devices exist to protect sewer systems by preventing the contamination of harmful food oil and grease (FOGs). Grease traps are essential for FOG management – to understand why, we need to understand what FOGs are.

All about Fats, Oils and Grease

Residual FOGs are food by-products that develop in the sinks and waste disposals of almost every eatery, restaurant and fast food outlet you can think of. Essentially, they enter a food service facility’s plumbing system from dishware washing, floor cleaning and equipment sanitation.

There’s no stopping this because of the nature of the food industry, so the next best option is prevention. Sewer systems aren’t designed or equipped to handle FOGs that accumulate on the interiors of sewer systems from uncontrolled discharges.

FOGs are full of substances that can be harmful to any ecosystem they come into contact with. That’s why grease traps are crucial for restaurant and eatery owners, but they’re not very useful if users don’t follow FOG management best practices.

Three FOG Best Management Practices you should be following

FOG Best Management Practices (BMPs) exist to reduce the amount of FOGs that enter sanitary sewer systems and prevent blockages. While it’s important to always have the right tools to manage residual FOGs, food service establishment owners still need to take care by following Best Management Practices, including but not limited to:

Cleaning grease traps weekly

Cleaning out your under-sink grease trap weekly is an easy process, read all about it here. Because of their small size, grease traps tend to fill up quicker than grease interceptors. Frequent cleaning is important, especially if your establishment doesn’t have a grease interceptor; to make things easier and save money, you can clean your grease trap yourself or get some of your staff to rotate the responsibility.

Cleaning grease traps and interceptors correctly

You need to make sure that your grease trap is cleaned correctly. These devices are sensitive and need to be treated with care; even if you do decide to call an expert for the job, you need to make sure that individual is doing what they need to be doing correctly. Mishandling of parts or lazy cleaning could lead to an avoidable predicament.

Minimise the amount of FOGs going down into your grease trap

By dry-wiping pots, pans and other dishware prior to washing them, you can reduce the amount of FOGs your grease trap needs to intercept. This will in turn reduce the frequency with which your grease traps and interceptors need to be cleaned, which will also result in lower chances of cleaning related damages.

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