"PRIFOG - A Producer Responsibility Initiative for Fat Oil and Grease - was an assessment of the potential of creating a software platform for the improved management of fat, oil and grease regulations throughout Europe and internationally.
The project was supported by Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) through the H2020-SMEINST-1-2015 call under the topic INSO-9-2015-1: Innovative mobile e-government applications by SMEs.
The project addressed two key societal issues:
1) the effective management of fat, oil and grease pollution from food businesses to protect the urban environment,
2) the ever increasing burden of regulations on the food service sector.
FOG, a by-product of food production, is a major contributing factor to sewer blockages in urban areas. FOG poses challenges to sewer asset managers, and adversely affects citizens in cities worldwide. To combat FOG, many cities impose regulations on food service businesses (FSBs) in the form of a FOG source control program. However, satisfying the requirements of these regulations places a significant financial and operational burden on food service businesses.
PRIFOG, was a feasibility analysis for SwiftComply, a software platform that allows food businesses to purchase, schedule and manage their FOG compliance online. SwiftComply works in partnership with local governments (or ""city authorities"") to perform transactional oversight of FOG services - therefore reducing the requirement for FSBs to be submit annual reports to the city authority or for the city to perform on-site inspections of FSBs.
PRIFOG aligns with the European Commission’s (the Commission’s) Digital Single Market strategy through the promotion of Digital Public Services and the European Cloud Initiative. It allows city authorities (or local governments) and food businesses to work together more effectively to reduce their regulatory burden and make the EU a better place to live, work and invest in food service businesses.
Furthermore, by placing businesses at the centre of the compliance process, we can maximise the impact of environmental regulation – and minimise the effect of FOG on our urban areas.
Our platform connects regulators, food service businesses, and service providers for a common goal. Protecting the health of our community is now simple, transparent, and business friendly.
PRIFOG demonstrated significant opportunity for the SwiftComply solution and presents the opportunity to create jobs across the EU, and globally. The project has resulted in the development of a European and US sales strategy for SwiftComply and the development of two further city-partnerships for SwiftComply in addition to the existing project in Dublin, Ireland.
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