Most people know about the Fatberg problem. Having hit the front pages and featured in dedicated museum exhibitions, Fatbergs have become familiar to a wide audience — even if the issue isn’t quite dinner table conversation across the nation. Many people understand that the problem stems from our bad habit of letting fats, oils and grease (FOGs) slip down our drains into our sewers, where they solidify and form hard-to-remove Fatbergs over time.
With the growth in awareness, there’s also been a growth in problem-solving: we are approaching the solution bit by bit, drain by drain.
And it’s all down to teamwork, as water companies, environmental boards and individual food businesses work together across the UK.
Grease traps can seem pricey. And that price-tag can push some into buying cheaper, less-durable traps or even opting to take the risk and not have one at all.
But choosing to cheap-out or putting off installing a GRU entirely is a bad idea for any food business.
Here’s why being cautious about FOG production makes good financial sense.
Whether you’re opening a new restaurant, or just revamping your current one, you’re going to need to install some form of FOG mitigation system. FOGs—or fats, oil and grease—are natural by-products produced during cooking. But if they’re washed down the sink they can congeal and form monster fatbergs which can block whole sewer networks.
Because of the devastating environmental impact, this can cause, not to mention the extreme expense of simply clearing the blockage and repairing the damage, water companies can fine businesses who haven’t taken the necessary precautions to stop FOG being flushed down their drains.
Most businesses have always believed in the old adage that there's no such thing as bad publicity. The trick has always been to generate enough publicity—regardless of whether it’s bad or good. And in many cases, it works. Recent research has shown that negative stories attract 172% more news coverage and 178% more social shares than positive stories.
But the same doesn’t hold true in the foodservice industry. There’s no way of spinning a headline about someone getting food poisoning in your restaurant! Businesses’ reputations can be irreversibly damaged when it’s the brand’s integrity that is the source of negative publicity.
Our societies are currently facing a huge number of problems and our modern way of life is responsible for at least two of them: from the huge existential climate crisis to the relatively obscure fatberg problem plaguing our cities. It can be difficult to see the links between these two, but they are there: let’s take a closer look…