Requirement for Greasetraps
If you run a business producing food of any sort (whether you’re a factory, pub, restaurant, hotel or care home) the law says you need to have a ‘system‘ in place to deal with Fats, Oils and Greases (FOGs). If you discharge FOGs to the sewer you are breaking the law. The principal requirements can be found in the building regulations and the Water Industry Act 1991. There is a more comprehensive section on the law later but the Water Industry Act 1991 states:
No person shall throw, empty or turn, or suffer or permit to be thrown or emptied or to pass, into any public sewer, or into any drain or sewer communicating with a public sewer, any matter likely to injure the sewer or drain, to interfere with the free flow of its contents or to affect prejudicially the treatment and disposal of its contents.
This includes contamination by FOGs. Approved Document H to the Building Regulations 2000 (amended April 2002) says that the requirement for an adequate drainage system should minimise the risk of blockage or leakage. It goes on to state that one way of meeting this level of performance is for:
Drainage serving kitchens in commercial hot food premises should be fitted with a grease separator complying with BS EN1825-1 and designed in accordance with BS EN1825-2 or other effective means of grease removal.
This ‘system’ is often a grease trap but doesn’t need to be; you can also use a biological system either in place of a grease trap or to improve your existing grease trap’s performance. Click here for our guide to grease trap law.
There is a legal minimum size for a grease trap depending on the type of business you’re running. Calculating this is defined by BS EN1825 and it’s complicated – but we’ll happily do a survey and the calculation for free. Just get in touch and we’ll give you a free report with no obligation whatsoever. A coffee would be nice, though.
If you like how we work and we can help, great. If not, at least you’ll know where you stand and where we are when you need us.
