Where is the food trap?

Is it still okay to prepare food when the grease trap backs up?

• Hi, I work in a restaurant in Alberta, Canada and I am quite angry with my management, because I think they are clearly in the wrong. I've scoured the internet and all info pretty much points to the same thing. Anyways, at the restaurant I am employed at, the grease trap became ineffective due to regular grease going down the drains, and more importantly, the negligence of management to have regular maintenance performed. So the grease trap became "overwhelmed" and we had a back up of all that wonderful stuff throughout our kitchen and prep area. The smell was unbearable! Like rotten eggs. Anyways I refused to work under those conditions and left. I later returned when a cleaning crew had come in. But should they have shut down the restaurant? It was backing up from all the drains in the kitchen and prep area. Preparing food in the kitchen would most definitely cause a splash up of the backup on to drawers and stuff that cooks are then touching. I am unsure if it was raw sewage and I understand the pipes are different but I still believe this is not food safe! My boss was extremely arrogant and did not respect my decision to leave the restaurant.. to say the least. Can you please clear this up for me? Thank you for your time.

• Answer:

  The smell is only rotting food particles that has turned into sludge or officially brown grease. Not a big deal for restaurant owners that don't go into kitchens. When you do not maintain your grease trap you are basically polluting the sanitary sewer system. The grease clogs the pipes, the pipes back up and cause sanitary sewer overflows. That is raw sewage spilling into the street. The backup ends up in the storm sewer that goes directly into a lake, stream, or river. Oh well .... no big deal ... water pollution is no big deal. see www.greasetrap.ca/sewer.htm for the environmental damage from restaurant grease. As far as the working conditions, although smelly , just call the health board,. They will shut you down in a second. There is extreme amounts of bacteria running thru your kitchen. This is totally unsanitary.