It’s been a busy month for Jonathan Hunt, food service provider for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He started the month putting in 16- and 18-hour days, and his schedule has only grown more intense with the Indianapolis 500 days away. “It’s been pretty hectic,” Hunt said. “We keep picking up more and more and more.” But things could be worse. At least he doesn’t have to worry about disposing of the oceans of used cooking oil generated by the track’s many dozens of concession-stand fryers.
That little detail is handled by Centerville, Ohio-based entrepreneur Ken Melick, who owns a cluster of Filta Environmental Kitchen Solutions franchises in Indiana and Ohio. Founded in 1996, Filta describes itself as “a pioneer in active fryer management and environmental kitchen sustainability.” To put it simply, Melick’s employees use the company’s technology to filter used cooking oil for reuse. They also clean customers’ fryers and cart off used cooking oil to be recycled into, of all things, biodiesel fuel. “The goal is, when the customer uses us, the only thing they have to do is show up and cook in the fryers,” Melick said.
The company possesses a fleet of vans, each containing a mobile filtration unit that extends the life of a particular batch of oil by sifting out traces of food items, such as pieces of breading, that can cause an “off” or burnt flavor. The fryer itself is also cleaned, then the filtered oil is put back in place.
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