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Can You Leave Oil in a Deep Fryer: How long is Acceptable

You’ve deep fried your food at home or work and want to use the deep fryer the next day. Question is, can you leave oil in a deep fryer?

There are some concerns you might have ranging from how the oil will react to the metal container of the deep fat fryer and how it will react to the air.

Will it be safe to use again if it’s allowed to sit there for an extended period of time? To answer this question briefly, the answer is yes, you can leave oil in a deep fryer. You need to make sure that the oil maintains its purity before each re-use. To ensure this, make sure that your deep fryer has an air tight cover.

Do this and you are generally on the safe side. Make sure to inspect the oils prior to re-using it to make sure that is hasn’t become cloudy but maintained its clearness.

The type of oil you use also plays a huge factor on whether or not it can be used again. It’s advisable to use vegetable oil when deep frying as it handles this process better because of its high smoke point.

This is the point at which point oil begins to smoke. You want to make sure that oil doesn’t smoke as it will be dangerous to re-use it after that happens.

Vegetable oil is what is generally used at most food outlets and they tend to re-use their oil a lot. All these factors have a huge bearing on whether you should store your oil in the first place let alone if you can.

Let’s assume that you have used the recommended oil, can it be stored? Generally speaking, if oil doesn’t reach the smoking point and temperatures are maintained below that point throughout the cooking process, it can be stored and re-used.

A lot of factors can play a part in making your oil unsafe while being stored in the deep fryer. The material that the fryer is made of can be a factor while any food particles left in the oil could also impact the oil in different ways.

Make sure that the deep fryer has an air tight seal to cover it during the period of storage. Many modern day deep fat fryers come with this as standard. Another precaution to take it to make sure that there are no particles that may affect the oil and make it cloudy.

How Long Can I leave Oil in a Deep Fryer?

How long can you keep oil in a deep fryer? The world at large enjoys a fried meal. Fried food has been on the family dinner tables and in fast food outlets for generations.

Even with the health consciousness of people all around the world, people would rather look for alternative, healthier ways to fry food like air fryers than to give it up all together.

We use deep fryers in our homes and if you are in the food industry, at work as well. Regardless of whether you fit in the first or the second bracket, or both, you want to be able to make sure that your family and customers enjoy a great tasting meal but also remain safe in the process.

So, how long can you keep oil in a deep fryer? The recommended time to keep oil in a deep fat fryer is a few days to a few weeks depending on how often the oil in the fryer is used.

There are general guidelines that you need to follow and we will be looking at these in this article.

How long can you Keep Oil in General?

Generally speaking, used oil can be stored up to 3 months after the date of initial use and still be rendered safe for consumption.

This is applicable only if care has been taken to ensure that the oil has been filtered and stored in a cool dark place (preferably a refrigerator) or frozen.

This is the recommended time frame within which it is generally safe for consumption by humans. Anything falling outside of this time frame can generally be deemed unsafe.

Recommended time to leave oil in a Deep Fryer

As far as keeping oil in a deep fryer in concerned, you want to be mindful of a few factors. The first thing you need to do is make sure that the oil is strained after every use.

The deep fryer must be cleaned then the oil returned into it. This process should only be done a maximum of eight to ten times before the oil is discarded.

You may be wondering, however, whether or not you can forgo the whole process of straining the oil and cleaning the deep fryer. Relatively speaking, you can re-use the deep fryer and oil without going through the whole process but what it means that you can only use the oil five to six times.

When you don’t strain the oil and clean the deep fryer, you are giving food particles and other impurities the opportunity to contaminate the oil.

Concerns Associated With Keeping Oil in a Deep Fryer?

There are some concerns that you need to be mindful of if you want to make sure that the oil that you store in the deep fryer remains safe for human consumption.

First and foremost, the deep fryer must be cleaned on a regular basis so that nothing contaminates the oil in the fryer. Secondly, you want to make sure that you filter out any food particles that remain in the oil.

Although oil can generally act as a preservative of sorts and slow down the degradation of food particles, it cannot be classified as a food preservative hence food particles left in it will degrade and eventually contaminate the oil.

You need to inspect the oil every time you use it to make sure that it is not turning cloudy. This is a sign of contamination which can lead to possible food poisoning.

Better Storage Alternatives for Your Oil

If you use vegetable oil for your deep frying, you can re-use it multiple times if you ensure that it is prepared for storage then stored safely.

Once you’ve used your oil, strain it using fine sieve or strainer then store it in a glass or ceramic container. You will want to refrigerate or freeze the oil. This way, you make sure that the oil is protected from impurities and can be used even months down the line.

Conclusion

To wrap it up, let’s summarize our answer. Can you leave oil in a deep fryer? All things being equal, you definitely can do that.

Just make sure that you take care to seal it with an airtight seal and keep as many impurities out as possible. A more ideal storage option though would be to keep use a strainer and strain the oil into a glass or ceramic container making sure to remove any impurities then storing in a refrigerator or freezing the oil.

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