CEA meet with Dublin City Council in relation to their Fats, Oils and Grease (FOG) Management Programme

The objective of the FOG Management Programme is to prevent fats, oils and grease clogging in the pipes. Two thousand food service establishments will be licenced and quarterly monitoring will take place to ensure that the companies are compliant and using proper grease traps in line with the IS Standards or US guideline standards, which cover design and size.

A Food Service Establishment that is required to install grease trapping equipment can opt for either of two options below: -

Passive grease traps - These are devices that separate out waste FOG from waste water and do so by means of settlement. These units should be sized according to the standards mentioned below. They can be made of steel or concrete and will have a row of baffles internally which the waste water makes its way through the device while holding the waste FOG internally. These units must be emptied out and filled with clean water once per month at a minimum by a permitted Hauler.  

Passive grease traps must be designed, installed, operated and maintained in accordance with the following NSAI Standards pertaining to grease separators: 

I.S. EN 1825:2004 - Principles of Design, Performance, and Testing, Marking and Quality Control

I.S. EN 1825:2002 - Selection of Nominal Size, Installation, Operation and Maintenance

                                                                                   OR

Grease removal units (GRU's) - Grease recovery unit. These devices are best described as automatic type units. They have either mechanical and or electrical devices internally that pushes or skims the waste FOG out of the trap and into a holding container. These devices need to be checked/maintained on a daily basis and should be cleaned out once every six months and in some cases every quarter depending on the quantity of waste solids at the base of such units. These GRU's should be sized according to the PDI Standards mentioned below.

GRU's must be designed in accordance with the following standard issued by the Plumbing and Drainage Institute:

Standard PDI-G101 - Testing and Rating Procedure for Grease Interceptors (includes appendix of sizing and installation data)

It is strictly the responsibility of the Food Service Establishment/Service providers to ensure that the equipment is installed by properly licensed plumbing professionals in accordance with all plumbing standards.

Normally establishments opt for passive traps but where space is a premium then the automatic trap is used as an alternative.

For further information contact: Adrienne McDonnell on 01-6051677