Grease traps play a crucial role in many professional kitchens and food court spaces. They help to clear away fats, oil, and grease waste in a gradual flow that integrates with the building’s existing wastewater system. Also known as FOG these waste products can sometimes congeal, causing difficult clogs and possibly backing up into the food prep area.
What Happens If There Is Too Much Build Up?
The ramifications of a FOG build-up can be profound. Depending on how your kitchen’s grease trap and wastewater system is set up, it could lead to slow running drains, clogged drain, back up of grease, drain water pooling on the floors, and mechanical accidents from slipping on greasy floors.In some cases, a severely compromised grease trap can even lead to a food code violation or a reputation-damaging restaurant closure! Even if you manage to catch a blocked grease trap in time, the cost for mechanical clearance can be excessively high. A major problem might even require you to close down normal kitchen operations for hours.
How Often Should The Kitchen Line And Grease Traps Be Cleaned?
Unfortunately, even the most up-to-date and well-designed grease trap system can’t direct 100% of waste grease to the building’s drain system. As time goes on, trace amounts of FOG can gradually buildup in the pipes. The conventional wisdom is to have the grease traps and any floor drains susceptible to FOG cleared every one-to-three months. This can vary depending on how much fat and grease your kitchen is releasing.
However, many of the modern chemical solutions for keeping FOG moving through a building’s drain system use solvents, surfactants, corrosive drain cleaners and specially formulated enzymes that temporarily break up the FOG.
As it continues to flow through the municipal water system the effectiveness of these chemical solutions dilutes, and the FOG ends up deposited further down the line. Left unchecked this self-reinforcing process can cause major disasters in the local sewer system. These recurring issues have prompted many municipally operated wastewater systems to ban the use of chemical drain cleaners.
Using Building Services Inc Monthly FOG System Keeps Pipes Clean
How To Properly Manage Grease Build Up In A Commercial Kitchen
The struggle with FOG complications and potential drain issues is an eternal one. Yet there are some practices you can incorporate into your kitchen procedures that will help reduce FOG build-up. With diligent kitchen employees, these things can extend the amount of time between the drain and grease trap cleanouts.
This includes things like:
- Posting a “No grease” sign above all sinks and dishwashers
- Dry wiping pans and dishes to reduce grease in washing systems
- Installing strainers and upgraded filters in deep fryers
- Recycling waste grease
- Making sure that any excess grease storage is away from floor drains
BSI’s Microbial Solutions For FOG Drain Problems
Fortunately, modern science has found a non-toxic and more effective way to deal with FOG buildup in commercial grease traps. Building Services Inc. offers a special BSI FOG grease management system that uses microbial enzymes as an ecologically friendly solution to address this constant problem.
How Does Our Hands-Off FOG System Work?
How it works, is that your commercial kitchen receives a high-quality pump and a bucket fill with special microbial enzymes, that are designed to last for up to 30 days. The enzymatic materials are automatically pumped into the grease trap system. These micro-organisms are compatible with modern-day sewer systems and municipal water treatment plants. Great care was put into developing them to be non-toxic and safe to the environment.
The microbes consume wastewater materials and grease. As they do so they also secrete enzymes that breakdown the unwanted material and food into smaller molecules which are easier for the system to process. This process known as “Extra-Cellular Digestion” leaves behind carbon dioxide and water. BSI F.O.G. utilizes a proprietary blend of Bacillus Subtilis spores which are known to secrete the lipase enzyme responsible for decomposing the triglycerides in fats, oils, and grease. They essentially consume the free fatty acids eliminating them forever.
The BSI FOG microbes are effective even at the low pH ranges found in most commercial kitchen grease traps. The low pH range they can still operate at is lower than most other competitor products, which can be pushed through the system before they complete the job.
Environmentally Safe Cleaning
It’s also worth noting that BSI FOG was designed to be safe for the environment, while also helping to reduce the unpleasant odors found in many unkempt grease trap systems. It was specially formulated using minimal amounts of buffering agent, which gives it superior storage stability as well as an improved shelf life Clients who subscribe to the BSI FOG system receive a new bucket every 30-days. This ensures that you never run out, and your grease trap system remains free-flowing.
Other Uses For BSI FOG
You should also note that BSI FOG is not just for grease trap and drain management best practices. It was specially formulated to be environmentally friendly as well as versatile. This means you can also use it for things like:
- Cleaning hard surfaces
- Treating a septic tank with a drain field
- Localized odor control
- Treating animal waste
- Additional wastewater treatments
- Augmenting laundry detergent
BSI FOG System Return On Investment Saves You Money & Time
The BSI FOG subscription offered by Building Services Inc. offers a super return on investment over other products, while also being more effective. This starts with saving man-hours, which would otherwise be spent draining and scraping grease trap tank deposits. The return on investment savings also extends to things like not needing to hire plumbers with expensive equipment to clear clogs, drains, and other grease trap problems.
You also shouldn’t look past the long-term damage that could be done to your commercial kitchen’s reputation if a major grease trap failure leads to a health code violation. Beyond simply being shut down for maintenance, the general public may get the wrong impression about the professionalism of your restaurant. Even after the issue is mechanically cleared, the negative perception about the cleanliness of your kitchen could haunt your business for months if not years to come.
When you put all these things into perspective, compared to the low monthly cost of BSI FOG, the choice becomes clear. Not to mention the peace of mind that comes with knowing you aren’t going to have an emergency grease trap problem in the middle of a service.
