Archive for the ‘oil removal’ tag
Slips, Falls and Burns… major accidents in kitchens
Work-related burns are one of the leading causes of occupational injuries in the restaurant industry.
One of the most common injuries are scald burns, which is when the skin comes in contact with hot liquid or steam. Scalds from water are very frequent in the restaurant industry and can cause third degree burns. However, scalds from hot oil are generally more severe than those from water. This is because oil heats to higher temperatures, and oil is thicker so it may remain on the skin for a longer period of time. With the constant growing of the food service industry, keeping employees safe in the kitchen has become one of the highest priorities for restaurants owners.
Another serious work-related injury in restaurants is slip and falls. Many serious burns occur when employees slip and reach to steady themselves. This action often can knock hot liquids off of counters and stove tops on to the worker. Another instance could occur if an employee is carrying full containers of hot liquids.
Among the most dangerous job duties of a restaurant employee is the removal of oil and cleaning or “boiling out” of deep fryers. This task is very time-consuming, unpleasant, and unsafe. However, the Filta Group’s FiltaFry service greatly reduces, and almost completely eliminates, the dangers behind managing commercial deep fryers. With its unique machine and safety equipment, FiltaFry’s mobile onsite cooking oil filtration and fryer management service system completely takes the responsibility of dealing with the deep fryers away from the employees. The service includes filtering the cooking oil, discarding of the waste oil, cleaning the deep fryer, and calibrating the thermostats, while making sure the surrounding area is clean and hazard free. Thus, by relieving the employees of the duties of cleaning the deep fryers, FiltaFry gets rid of majority of restaurant related injuries. Employees will no longer have to deal with hot deep fryer oil, which cuts down on scalds and burns, as well as possible slip and falls.
Showing off at Tradeshows
Over the past few months, Filta has participated in tradeshows and conventions across the country including The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Show in Orlando, Florida, the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago, Illinois, the Louisiana Foodservice Expo in New Orleans, Louisiana and other local food and hospitality shows.
At the beginning of November, Filta will travel once again; this time to Los Angeles, California for The West Coast Franchise Expo to demonstrate how they have built their company with the help of franchising.
Tradeshows are a very useful tool to help increase brand awareness and get a business’s name out into the public. These shows let companies in a specific industry showcase their latest products and services; as well as let them study other businesses and examine present market trends. Filta uses these expos as an opportunity to educate potential customers about their services and to help the company grow.
So far, Filta’s involvement in tradeshows has been nothing but positive. With thousands of potential customers passing your booth, how could it not be?
The Filta company and its franchise owners benefit from tradeshows. At the shows, different franchise representatives are always present from the local areas, giving interested customers a chance to speak with the franchisee they will be directly dealing with. This provides the consumer with a personal feel to the company, helping them to remember Filta above others.
Not only are tradeshows and expos a very useful tool to spread a company’s name, but they can be very enjoyable as well. Check out some pictures of the Filta team at their shows.
Filta Cleans Up Where Others Won’t
Article from Stanford Advocate
Michael C. Juliano, Staff Writer
Neil Groglio of Westport and Matt Neeley of Shelton are not afraid to take care of the dirty work.
Since launching a Filta Environmental Kitchen Solutions franchise in September, the business partners have been cleaning out deep fryers and purifying the oil at area restaurants through the use of a specially designed filtration machine.
“We thought it was a very interesting business, a little different from what you find out there,” said Groglio, a middle school teacher and former rental car company owner. “I call it a dialysis machine for cooking oil.”
The franchise has three technicians each with vans and oil-cleaning devices, which are about the size of a shopping cart, making stops at some 80 clients in Fairfield, New Haven and Hartford counties, Groglio said.
“We take the most dangerous and disagreeable job out of the kitchen,” said Groglio, who notes that most restaurant accidents involve maintaining deep fryers. “Everyone hates doing that job because it’s disgusting.”
The weekly cleaning process, which takes about 15 minutes a fryer and takes place while the oil is still hot, involves running the oil through the filtration machine while the deep fryer is vacuumed and then cleaned with a non-toxic, alcohol and water-based solution.
“We then put the purified oil back and you’re ready to go,” Groglio said, adding that the cleaning, which costs about $30 a fryer, extends the life of most oils from one week to two weeks. “We try to avoid really busy times so as to not disrupt service.”
They also offer to take the oil to a biofuel plant in Waterbury free of charge for the production of biodiesel through the Filta Bio program, said Neeley, an account executive in the wholesale banking industry.
“In most cases, our cleaning service is self-financing because it extends the life of the oil,” he said.
The franchise also carries a Filta Cool mineral-containing panel that can be installed monthly on the ceiling of refrigerators to reduce moisture, Neeley said.
“We’re still getting into that side,” he said.
The startup cost to buy a franchise from Orlando, Fla.-based Filta Environmental Kitchen Solutions, which was founded in England in 1996 before coming to the United States in 2002 and has franchisees in 20 countries, is about $125,000, including training, a van and equipment, Groglio said.
Restaurants are always looking for new methods and equipment that will help them save money, especially in today’s economy and with state laws going into effect next July concerning the storage of cooking oils, said Nicole Griffin, president of the Connecticut Restaurant Association.
“This (Filta) might help restaurants,” she said.
Owning a franchise that caters to the restaurant industry can be successful because food is franchising’s largest category, said Steve Dubin, president of the New England Franchise Association.
NRA Show in Chicago a Great Success
Filta’s Booth (5360) was busy during the NRA tradeshow and convention in the Windy City.
It was nice to meet so many existing Filta customers – some as far away as Panama – hello Omar! It was a really good showing for Filta, and we decided it was the perfect place to unveil a 7’ cutout of the bad oil fighting superhero FiltaMan.
FiltaMan was designed as part of the creative direct mail campaign for the second half of this year. Keep your eyes open for more sightings of FiltaMan and several other new characters coming soon.
Want to see our Weapon of Mass Reduction?
A new marketing campaign to restaurants is being launched in Q1 2010. The slogan “Want to see our Weapon of Mass Reduction” is being used for both direct mail and email.
Waste Oil Disposal Issues
Many people are considering Bio Diesel as an alternative fuel, and for good reason- biodiesel is typically cleaner burning, smells better and also better on the environment. While some savvy restaurant owners have come to the conclusion that it is better to recycle and reuse the oil- either by way of filtering better to eliminate loss through waste, or by giving their waste oil to local bio diesel users to convert- the problem remains the same. You cannot simply dump waste vegetable oil, so disposal is often a concern of restaurant owners.
When not disposed of properly, waste vegetable oil is not good for the environment, ironically. It can cause serious damage to local water supply and also, can be problematic for wildlife. Dumping waste vegetable oil in your own parking lot can also cause damage to your sewer and septic systems, and cause a great deal of repair to have to be made- costly repair.
Dumped vegetable oil actually causes a large number of issues with sewer and septic systems because as vegetable oil cools and settles it congeals, which can clog up pipes and cause corrosion of certain materials.
There are a number of kits available on the market now for do it yourself bio diesel afficianados- and the popularity of alternative fuel is taking the world by storm, particularly in the US. So, now, restaurant owners find themselves with a new alternative to paying fees for disposal or having to deal with local ordinances. However, there is also an issue of some bio diesel users not being careful when removing the waste oil- so how do you bring these two things together to benefit both? Some intelligent business owners have simply started to place ads in the paper for the removal of their waste oil, coming together and giving the grease using populace an easy way to obtain their fuel, but also, a great and cost effective way to dispose of the grease.
The FiltaBio service, offered by Filta Franchisees, takes the old oil away and ensures that all the oil goes to biodiesel. Others still yet simply take the waste vegetable oil to rendering companies. Usually, in these cases it doesn’t even matter how nasty the oil has gotten, not only do the rendering plants need that extra grime in the vegetable oil- they usually will pay to take it. These plants typically make alternatives to fire starters or animal foods from the vegetable oils, and restaurant owners never have to deal with it again. As you can see, there are many other alternatives to simply dumping waste vegetable oil out there- and all have better outcomes than simply tossing it. So, there are a variety of really great ways to take the waste oil issues you may have, and turn them around- not only either benefiting your bottom line, but benefiting the environment as well. Waste vegetable oil does not have to be a headache- as a matter of fact, with a little bit of negotiation, your “trash” can become someone else’s “treasure”.