I would like to chime in on the article regarding Sussex County inspectors coming back after years of operation to require the owners of Rita’s Ice to install grease traps in their stores. I recognize the importance of keeping grease out of the wastewater stream, but this is an overreach by inspections after the fact.
As someone who owned and operated a Rita’s Ice franchise for 10 years in New Jersey, I can tell you that both the building inspector and the health inspector did not require a grease trap because there is no cooking of anything greasy to trap before it goes into the waste stream. The store sells water ice and frozen custard.
While frozen custard might have micro amounts of an oil in it, almost none of it goes down the drain, and it is too expensive for any of it to be flushed down the drain.
The normal household puts more grease into the system than the water ice facilities. Obviously the person who did the initial inspection when the stores were built didn’t think they were necessary. This is an undue burden on a facility that has been operating for over 20 years.
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