Featured Image Credit: Tetiana Selimova/Getty Images
Topics: Food and Drink, UK News
Britt Jones
If you’re planning on making pancakes today (as you should be), there has been an urgent warning issued that you won’t want to ignore.
Everyone loves Pancake Day, otherwise known as Shrove Tuesday.
It’s the religious holiday which stems from Christian tradition of eating perishables before partaking in a period of fasting, known as Lent.
During this time, people are supposed to fast for 40 days and give penance.
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But over the years, less and less people have been opting to fast, and have instead been lapping up the yummy pancakes instead.
While it’s tempting to make the biggest batch of pancakes and then discard the rest of the mix down the sink…you really shouldn’t be doing it.
No, not the pancakes, you can eat as many as you want. It’s the pouring of the thick batter that you need to be aware of.
As the mixture is made out of oil, flour and fat, it can easily clog your drains and lead to some nasty backing up.
Essentially, what it does is quickly hardens in your pipes which can cause them to burst, as well as resulting in blockages that can’t be fixed without professional help.
It can also cause a fatberg, which is a glob of fat and grease that sticks with things such as wet wipes, or something that’s not meant to be flushed and turns into a super blockage.
So, if you want to avoid the costly plumbing bill, you should dump the leftovers in the bin.
The issue with pouring pancake batter down sink drains has gotten so bad that even a company is now urging people to dispose of their pancake mix the right way this year.
Severn Trent, a company that covers a large portion of the West Midlands and beyond, has asked that anyone who is eating the tasty treats today to put their leftovers straight into the bin.
Citing the horrid ‘fatbergs’ as the number one reason, the water company wants to avoid blockages in sewers and flooding issues this year.
Grant Mitchell, sewer blockages lead at Severn Trent, told Lichfield Live: “This Pancake Day, we’d like to remind people to watch what they’re pouring down their drains and think about the affect it could have on the sewers.
“Pancakes might seem undamaging to most people, but the batter and the fats, oils and grease that they’re paired with cause huge problems when they’re washed down the sink.
“Once it reaches the pipes and congeals with things that are wrongly flushed down the toilet, like wet wipes, they create fatbergs and cause blockages that can be quite expensive to fix.
“Throw leftover food waste in the bin instead of pouring it in the sink.”
The company also shared a fantastic hack to save your drains from the grease.
They said to use kitchen roll to soak up the grease remnants before cleaning your oily pans and to collect any oils or fats in a jar, leaving it to cool and then put that in the bin too.
Sadly, their warning isn’t unwarranted, as Severn Trent said it had to clear a ‘shocking’ 28,782 blockages last year.