If you’re cooking this evening, a new study may encourage you to reach for the air fryer.
Researchers from the University of Birmingham say that cooking even very fatty food in an air fryer produces far fewer air–pollution particles than other forms of frying.
In their study, the team analysed the particles released while cooking 12 popular treats – including potato smiley faces, onion rings, and sausages.
Their analysis revealed that air–frying produced less particulate matter (PM) and volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) than shallow or deep–fat frying.
However, there’s an important caveat – this is only the case if your air fryer is clean.
‘Our study shows that repeated use of air fryers without being able to clean the more inaccessible cooking surfaces can negate some of the benefits for indoor air quality,’ explained Professor Christian Pfrang, lead author of the study.
‘While the effects are not producing emissions that families should be concerned about, this finding does make a case for air fryer design that allows for a deep clean to keep emissions low in the long term.
‘Air quality in the home and other indoor environments is being increasingly recognised as an important factor, and our body of work will provide households with a better understanding of how kitchen activities affect the air we breathe in our homes.’
The team analysed the particles released while cooking 12 popular treats – including potato smiley faces, onion rings, and sausages. Their analysis revealed that air–frying produced less particulate matter (PM) and volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) than shallow or deep–fat frying
Because air fryers cook food by circulating hot air with little or no oil added, they produce foods with significantly lower fat content compared to deep or shallow frying
Because air fryers cook food by circulating hot air with little or no oil added, they produce foods with significantly lower fat content compared to deep or shallow frying.
However, until now, how the cooking method impacts indoor air pollution has been largely unknown.
The researchers previously revealed that cooking chicken breast in the air fryer produced fewer air pollution particles than other cooking methods.
However, in their new study, the team set out to see if this is still the case with fattier foods.
‘While our previous study only looked at one type of food – lean chicken – we wanted to look at a greater range of foodstuffs including ones with higher fat content to see how they compare specifically when cooked in an air fryer,’ Professor Pfrang explained.
Using custom–made air fryers that could measure PM and VOCs, the researchers cooked batches of 12 foods: frozen fried chicken breast, frozen smiley hash browns, frozen onion rings, frozen broccoli and cauliflower with oil sprays, fresh chicken breast with oil sprays, courgette slices with oil sprays, mushrooms with oil sprays, vegetarian sausages, pork sausages, unsmoked bacon, and smoked bacon.
The results revealed that the onion rings, smoked bacon and unsmoked bacon produced the highest levels of emissions.
However, cooking these foods in a deep fat fryer was found to produce between 10 and 100 times higher levels of VOCs.
The researchers previously revealed that cooking chicken breast in the air fryerproduced fewer air pollution particles than other cooking methods
Ruijie Tang, first author of the study, said: ‘The results confirmed that while foods with high fat content do produce more emissions in the air fryer, they produce only a fraction of what we see in cooking methods such as shallow or deep–fat frying.’
However, the cleanliness of the air fryer is crucial.
Tests with an air fryer used more than 70 times revealed 23 per cent more VOCs and more than twice as many PM particles than an emply tray.
Based on the findings, the researchers are calling on home chefs to regularly clean their air fryers.
‘With regular maintenance and appropriate ventilation, the reduction in cooking emissions afforded by air frying can make it a viable and more environmentally friendly option compared with traditional frying methods, particularly in domestic settings where indoor air quality is of increasing concern,’ they concluded in their study, published in the American Chemical Society’s journal ES&T Air.
