Catering Company Grease Pickup That Flexes With Your Event Calendar

Catering companies are subject to the same grease disposal regulations as restaurants. The CDFA Inedible Kitchen Grease program cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/MPES/Rendering/ requires licensed transporters and compliant manifests per California Code of Regulations Title 3 Section 1180 for every pickup from your commissary kitchen. California Health and Safety Code Section 114201 leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC&sectionNum=114201 requires properly functioning grease traps and interceptors at your commissary facility. Local FOG programs — LA County Clean LA cleanla.lacounty.gov/fog/ and OC San ocsan.gov/ocsan-permits/businessfog/ — apply based on your commissary location. Additionally, pouring used cooking oil into drains at event venues violates local sewer discharge ordinances and can result in fines to both the venue operator and the catering company responsible for the discharge.

Our scheduling system is built for the variable output that catering companies produce. Your account coordinator reviews your upcoming event calendar weekly and adjusts pickup frequency accordingly. During a light week with small corporate lunches, you might have one standard commissary pickup. During a heavy wedding weekend or holiday stretch, we schedule additional pickups with as little as 24 hours notice. There are no surcharges or premium fees for extra pickups — the service is free regardless of frequency. We also automatically scale back during your slow season so you are not receiving unnecessary pickups when your fryers are idle.

Yes. We offer two options for venue-generated oil. First, we can coordinate a direct pickup at the event venue within 24 hours of your event — our driver arrives at the venue, collects the oil, and generates a full CDFA manifest documenting the venue address as the pickup origin. Second, we provide portable collection containers that you can bring to the venue and transport back to your commissary, where the oil is collected on your next scheduled pickup with a manifest noting both locations. Both options provide full regulatory compliance. We service venues throughout Orange County, Los Angeles, San Diego, and the Inland Empire. For a broader overview of how collection logistics work, see our guide on UCO collection for commercial kitchens (/blog/uco-collection-how-it-works-commercial-kitchens).

California law under the CDFA IKG program is nuanced on this point. If you are transporting your own used cooking oil generated by your own operations from a venue back to your own commissary kitchen, you may be operating under a generator exemption — however, the exemption has volume thresholds and documentation requirements that vary. The safest approach is to either arrange a direct venue pickup through a CDFA-licensed transporter or use our portable containers, which keep the oil documented under our CDFA license from the moment of collection. For full details on CDFA transporter licensing, see the CDFA IKG program page cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/MPES/Rendering/ and our blog post on grease hauler licensing in California (/blog/grease-hauler-licensing-california-what-to-verify).

Wedding season, typically May through October in Southern California, is our highest-demand period for catering clients, and we plan capacity for it months in advance. As your bookings increase, your account coordinator adjusts your pickup frequency proactively — you do not need to call for each additional pickup. We can service your commissary kitchen up to five times per week during peak periods, and venue pickups are scheduled alongside your event timeline. If your container size needs to increase for the season, we swap it at no charge. When wedding season winds down, we automatically reduce frequency to match your actual output. There is no minimum commitment, so you never pay for service you do not need during slow months.

Shared commissary kitchens present a unique compliance challenge because multiple operators generate oil that is often collected into a single container, but each operator is individually responsible for their disposal documentation. We work with commissary landlords and individual tenants in two models: a single master account where the commissary operator manages grease for all tenants with one container and consolidated manifests, or individual tenant accounts where each catering company has a designated container and receives their own CDFA manifests. Both models satisfy health inspector requirements and the OC San FOG permit program ocsan.gov/ocsan-permits/businessfog/. Your online dashboard separates volume tracking and compliance documentation by tenant if needed.