Restaurant Grease Compliance Checker

How to Check Your Restaurant Grease Compliance in California

This free compliance checker helps restaurant owners in Southern California quickly assess whether their used cooking oil and grease trap management meets CDFA requirements. Answer five questions about your current hauler, documentation, maintenance schedule, record-keeping, and container setup to get an instant compliance score with specific recommendations for any gaps.

California has some of the strictest grease disposal regulations in the country. The California Department of Food and Agriculture requires every restaurant to use a CDFA-registered Inedible Kitchen Grease hauler and receive a manifest documenting each pickup. Local health departments and regional water quality control boards enforce additional requirements around grease trap maintenance, FOG discharge limits, and record retention. A single failed inspection can result in fines from $200 to over $5,000 and mandatory corrective actions.

What Does CDFA Compliance Mean for Restaurant Grease?

CDFA compliance means your restaurant uses a hauler registered under the Inedible Kitchen Grease program to transport used cooking oil. Every pickup must be documented with a manifest that includes the date, volume, driver credentials, vehicle ID, and licensed destination facility. These records must be retained and available for inspection. Using an unlicensed hauler — even if they offer lower prices or faster service — exposes your restaurant to regulatory liability if the oil is disposed of improperly.

What Do Health Inspectors Look For During a Grease Inspection?

Health inspectors and FOG program officers typically check four things during a restaurant grease inspection: proof that your hauler is CDFA-licensed, manifests or receipts from recent pickups, your grease trap maintenance schedule and most recent pumping date, and the condition of your outdoor collection container. Missing any of these triggers a citation. Restaurants with digital manifests accessible from a phone or tablet can satisfy inspector requests in seconds — a significant advantage over paper-based record systems.

How to Get Your Restaurant Fully Compliant

The fastest path to full compliance is working with a licensed hauler who provides digital manifests, maintains your container, and coordinates your grease trap pumping schedule. A good hauler eliminates compliance gaps automatically — every pickup generates documentation, every container is inspected, and every record is stored digitally for instant retrieval. If your compliance checker score revealed gaps, the most impactful step is switching to a hauler who handles documentation as part of the standard service.