5 Reasons Why Grease Trap Hygiene is Important

When you cook, a lot of dirt and debris is generated, especially liquid waste. This accumulation of waste, if left unchecked, not only becomes unpleasant but can also be a serious and expensive process of disposal.

For example, it is possible to create problems at local water treatment facilities and clog up sewer lines in the neighborhood. So it is a really bad and unnecessary idea to pour butter, oils and fats down the drain.

At home it may be a very simple process; you just have to separate these residues in an empty can or bottle. But … what happens in a restaurant or some school? It becomes a more complicated task since we cannot be manually separating the waste that is produced.

It is a special device made of stainless steel that is generally used to separate solid residues and fats that go down the pipes in restaurants, hotels, fast food shops, production plants and in different applications and industrial processes. This in order to protect sanitary facilities.

For one to be effective it must have a volume between 95 and 100 liters.  As much as possible, avoid pouring fryer oils directly down the drain, as well as evacuating the fats that are separated in the trap into sealed and airtight plastic bags that go directly to the trash.

The role of grease traps in commercial kitchens

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In many businesses they are not important, this is due to the volume of meals prepared per day. In a household, an average family produces no more than three to five meals a day. This number increases to thousands in the case of a restaurant and other food businesses. In these places, the disposal of garbage through the kitchen sink can quickly generate the accumulation of particles in the drain pipes that in a short time end up blocked.

To deal with this problem in the right way, the authorities are asking that all businesses that need it, use it. They serve to separate grease from wastewater and thus prevent clogging of the sewer.

How do they work and what is the goal?

The role of the traps is to separate the grease and oils from the sewage, these devices accomplish this by decreasing the flow of the sewage coming from the kitchen pipes. The goal of this is to allow the wastewater to cool down. Once it cooled to room temperature, they will float to the top.

Similarly, wastewater may contain other types of solid waste. These residues will generally be heavier in mass. If so, they will sink to the bottom of the trap. Once this process has been completed, it will allow the remaining sewage to escape from the trap and enter the municipal drain.

And here are 5 reasons why regular maintaining is important:

Bad smell

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As it probably makes sense to you, any place where waste products accumulate will have an unpleasant odor. If you leave it for a long time not to clean, it will start to decompose and it will produce a very unpleasant smell of rot. It is clear to you that this can only have a negative impact on your restaurant.

Expensive replacement

In case you clean irregularly, all the waste materials inside will start to release various gases that will damage the steel, and then you will have to replace everything, which is very expensive.

Complicated cleaning

If you clean regularly, then it will be a quick and easy process. But if you don’t do it regularly, everything inside will mix into a thick mass that will be almost impossible to clean.

Blockage In Drainage System

Due to the irregular hygiene of the whole system, it can be clogged like any other drain. Then all the waste will start going back. This will eventually cause a blockage in the pipes and cause very great damage, which will cost a lot to be repaired.

Penalties

If your irresponsibility damages the water pipes and causes large scale damage, you will receive heavy fines from the competent institution. And you will have to pay for all the repair costs of the whole system. You may even have your license revoked.

How to maintain it properly?

Failure to check solid waste will end up blocking the grease trap making it unusable. Much worse, when the process starts over, the raw sewage will flow down the drain. Over time the drain will develop blockages, resulting in fines and other penalties. In addition, you will need to spend a good amount of money to remove the grease trap.

To ensure that it works at optimum levels, follow these guidelines:

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–Monitor grease, oil, and solids levels in the trap regularly.

-Only qualified personnel are in charge of removing the grease trap. If you already don’t have reliable professionals to do that, check this page.

-Install and maintain appropriate pre-treatment devices to reduce contamination levels in wastewater before it enters it.

-Keep the volume of wastewater and stream to the levels specified in the capacity design.

– Prevents rapid discharge of large volumes of wastewater into it.

-Adopt good work practices such as:
Avoid pouring cooking oil.
Remove and discard waste from dishes in a garbage can.
Avoid letting water run to defrost food.
Use the dishwasher only when it is completely full.

Conclusion:

All grease traps must be cleaned regularly. The frequency with which grease must be removed depends on the capacity of the trap and the amount of grease in the waste water. The intervals for fat removal can vary from once a week to one in several weeks. When the grease removal interval has been determined for a given installation, regular cleaning at these intervals is necessary to maintain the nominal performance of the trap. Once the accumulated grease and waste materials have been removed, the trap should be thoroughly checked to ensure that the air inlet, outlet, and exhaust are free from obstructions.

They are essential to keep the city’s drainage systems unobstructed, which is why they are required by the environmental authorities.