New restaurants are constantly popping up throughout the New England Area, bringing new dining options to foodies and casual diners alike. It’s a great time to get into the restaurant industry. As an entrepreneur setting up a new restaurant, you’ve got a lot of choices to make with a lot of factors to consider. And while your kitchen’s grease production might seem like a small thing, failure to plan for it can damage your kitchen and leave you in hot water with the city. Today we’ll go over the basics to consider about your restaurant’s grease production and how it can affect your bottom line. [Read more…]
Grease Trap 101: Grease Trap Maintenance
This trap was WAY overdue for service. The generally accepted rule is that a trap must be emptied when the grease level reaches 1/4 of the traps depth. This trap was 100% grease, which renders it useless allowing all grease, fats and oils to escape into the facility pipes as well as the sewer system or municipality system.
Over the last few years, every community has updated their Fats Oils Grease and Solids (or FOGS) policies as they relate to Food Service Facilities. The State Plumbing Code has always required a grease trap be attached to all three bay pot and pan sinks, but many Municipalities now require them on all food service fixtures as well as dishwashers OR that restaurants must have an exterior 1500-gallon grease interceptor to accept all kitchen waste. Surprisingly, the State Plumbing Code doesn’t mention anything about regular Grease Trap maintenance! It’s amazing the number of foodservice folks who assume the grease trap magically dissolves the collected FOGS and there is no need to ever open it! [Read more…]
Flow vs Grease: Grease Interceptor Sizing
Grease interceptors take in the flow of water from the parts of your restaurant that produces grease, and filters it out, before the waste water passes into the city’s drains. Since a large flow of water – such as ones from many kitchen and production sinks that could potentially be turned on all at once – could compromise a smaller grease trap, the largest factor on the right size for a restaurant’s interceptor is the volume flowing through it, and not the actual contents of flow. While this works (the flow will never overwhelm the unit when clean), depending on the amount of grease the restaurant produces that makes it into the interceptor can become overfull with grease, which also compromises the trap and requires additional cleaning. [Read more…]
