Grease Pickup Designed for Ghost Kitchen Operations

In California, every food facility operator is individually responsible for complying with grease disposal regulations under CA Health and Safety Code Section 114201 leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=HSC&sectionNum=114201. However, ghost kitchen lease agreements often assign shared infrastructure maintenance — including grease containers and interceptors — to the building owner or management company. In practice, both the facility operator and individual tenants can be cited if shared grease infrastructure is non-compliant. LA County FOG enforcement cleanla.lacounty.gov/fog/ and OC San permitting ocsan.gov/ocsan-permits/businessfog/ can issue violations to the permit holder, which is typically the building operator. Our service generates documentation for both levels — building management gets facility-wide compliance reports, and individual tenants get their own records for lease compliance and health inspections.

We install a container sized for the combined oil output of all tenants in the facility and adjust pickup frequency based on actual fill rates rather than estimates. Our driver arrives on a fixed schedule, pumps the shared container, cleans the area, and generates a facility-level manifest per CDFA IKG requirements cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/MPES/Rendering/. For tenant-level tracking, our dashboard allocates volume proportionally based on fryer count and reported production, giving each tenant documentation they can provide to the building manager or a health inspector. If a tenant joins or leaves, we recalibrate the container size and frequency within one service cycle so you never overshoot or undershoot capacity.

The CDFA Inedible Kitchen Grease program cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/MPES/Rendering/ requires that any company transporting used cooking oil hold a valid CDFA transporter license and produce a compliant manifest for every pickup per California Code of Regulations Title 3 Section 1180 law.cornell.edu/regulations/california/3-CCR-1180. Ghost kitchens are not exempt from these requirements — the facility where oil originates must be documented regardless of how many tenants operate inside. Our drivers carry CDFA credentials on every route, and manifests are generated digitally with the facility address, pickup date, volume collected, and destination recycling facility. Both the building operator and individual tenants can access these manifests through separate dashboard logins.

Yes. Ghost kitchen facilities are classified as food service establishments and must comply with local FOG programs. In LA County, the FOG program cleanla.lacounty.gov/fog/ requires food facilities to install properly sized grease interceptors, maintain cleaning logs, and retain disposal documentation. In Orange County, OC San ocsan.gov/ocsan-permits/businessfog/ administers a separate FOG permit with inspection requirements. The permit is typically held by the building operator, but lease agreements may pass compliance obligations to tenants. Ghost kitchens face additional scrutiny because high tenant density means higher grease loading on the sewer system, which can trigger more frequent inspections. Our compliance reports are formatted for both LA County and OC San inspectors.

We can have a container delivered and service scheduled within five business days of your initial request. During onboarding, we conduct a facility walk-through to map container placement, document access protocols and key codes, assess total fryer capacity across all tenants, and recommend container size and pickup frequency. For facilities with existing containers from another hauler, we coordinate the swap to avoid any gap in service. New tenant additions after initial setup are integrated within one service cycle — we adjust container size or frequency as needed and provision dashboard access for the new operator.

Call our 24/7 emergency line and a driver arrives within four hours on average. The driver pumps the container, cleans the overflow from the shared area, and files an incident report. There is no additional charge. After the emergency, we analyze the overflow cause — which is often a new tenant ramping up production, a promotional spike on delivery platforms, or a tenant dumping fryer oil more frequently than anticipated. We adjust container size or pickup frequency to prevent recurrence. The incident report is available to the building manager through the facility dashboard, providing documentation in case a specific tenant is responsible under their lease terms.