Sometimes cutting costs in foodservice operations seems doable and that may include using frying oil longer. There are ways to extend oil life including skimming, using quality filters, using quality oil and keeping the temperature from getting too high. But at some point, food quality will be affected so we want to focus on when to change oil instead of just skimming. Proper oil maintenance is the key to consistent quality food.

Skimming

Benefits of skimming include extending oil life by removing debris, letting the filter do less work throughout the day, allowing the flavor to be consistent, preventing polymerization from building up in the fry pot and allowing overall better fryer function.

When to Change the Oil

This decision should be based on the quality of the food being fried. Waiting too long is a risk. The food being produced could be poor quality which would cost the restaurant customers and ultimately, money.  However, changing the oil too early could be a waste and cause the restaurant to lose money. Look for these factors to know when you should change the oil.

If the fryer is used regularly, the oil may need changed up to twice a week. However, if the fryer is used less often then the oil may only need changed every few weeks. If a foodservice operator is unsure about when to change the oil in a fryer, we recommend checking the color and taste of the food and make sure there is no smell of burning as well. As the fryer is used, the cadence of oil changes will become clearer.

Put it Together

Using a SuperSorb® CarbonPad helps extend oil life by removing contaminants and allowing longer oil life. The filters extend the time between oil change-outs. Using the SuperSorb® CarbonPad and skimming larger debris regularly will substantially extend the life of your frying oil and save your operation in overall costs. Request a sample of our SuperSorb® CarbonPads or Envelopes and make the switch to better oil life.

SuperSorb® CARBONPAD IMPROVES FAST FOOD FRYING OPERATION COMPARED TO ADSORBENT POWDER and SYNTHETIC FILTER SHEET AND TO IMPREGNATED PAPER

A multinational fast food concept made a management decision to re-evaluate frying operations. The improvement plan included examining oil treatment/filtration technologies, evaluating in-store oil testing methodologies, a commitment to cleaning and a greater emphasis on preventive maintenance. Ultimately, management wanted to increase the efficiency of frying operations, improve food quality and establish more quantitative, reproducible methods for monitoring frying oil quality.

This application note addresses the results from the first of those objectives; evaluating efficacy of different filter media products for both the extension of useful frying oil life and for enhanced food product quality. The concept utilizes three fryers in each store. Prior to initiating the study, each fryer was cleaned utilizing the company’s new and improved boil out procedure. The food mix in each fryer varied. One fryer was used to fry starches (fries & potato products) only. The second fryer was used for fries and coated non-meat items, and the last fryer was dedicated to chicken tenders.

TESTING & EVALUATION

Management decided to evaluate two filtration/treatment technologies, and compare those results to the current filter product (baseline); (1) SuperSorb® CarbonPad, and an (2) other filter pad with an activated silica-based loose form adsorbent powder were chosen for evaluation. Baseline consisted of a diatomaceous earth (DE) impregnated paper.

Each trial was initiated using fresh oil and continued until the oil was deemed unacceptable using an oil test meter, and the 3M test strip. Discard was 24% Total Polar Materials (TPM) and an FFA level of 6.0 – 7.0%, respectively. Company personnel also monitored the sensory properties of the different food products to establish a direct relationship between the food and degrading oil quality. The volume of food that was fried each day was recorded, and the oil filtered at the end of each day’s production. The oil was tested daily after filtering, but before the fryer was topped off. Results were recorded. In addition, the study monitored procedures that would affect operating efficiencies such as filtering time for each variable, operating costs for each filtration/treatment technology and oil usage. The study also evaluated employee acceptance of the different filtration/treatment technologies.

Test Objective

Determine which filter medium performs the best at slowing down frying oil degradation, thus extending useful life, and improving product quality.
Compare the following types of filtering methods against the current practice: DE Impregnated paper sheet is the baseline.
• Phase 1: other filter pad with an activated silica-based loose form adsorbent powder
• Phase 2: FILTROX-Filtercorp – SuperSorb® Carbon Pad.

Test Protocol

All fry pots boiled out at the beginning of each phase of the test.
Each fry pot is evaluated stand alone – no oil rotation.

Oil Sample Collection Protocol:

• Collect samples from pots 1 – 3 after filtering daily in the morning and afternoon.
• Collect samples when each fry pot is at 300 °F / 350 °F (149 °C / 176 °C).
• Collect samples from fresh oil while still in container.

Chemical Evaluation:

• Technical Laboratory Measurement
• Percent of FFA (Free Fatty Acids)
• Color by Lovibond

In Restaurant Measurement:

• Percent of TPM (Total Polar Materials) Discard Target – 24%.
• Percent of TPM via EBRO tool pre/post filtering.
• Free fatty acids via 3M Oil Quality Test Strips.

Success Criteria

• Extended Useful Fry Life over current &/or comparable methods.
• Reduction in Frying Oil Usage over current &/or comparable methods.
• Time required to filter over current &/or comparable method remains the same or is improved.
• Actual cost reduction.

RESULTS

The three trials were carried out over a period of approximately six weeks. This included allocating time before each trial started to ensure that restaurant staff were properly trained on use and handling of the different filtration/treatment technologies. The studies found that the SuperSorb® technology performed best. The oil treated with this system lasted an average of ten (10) days, whereas, the other filter pad with activated loose form powder lasted nine (9) days and the baseline – DE impregnated paper only five (5) days.

In addition, the SuperSorb® technology demonstrated other benefits. These included;
1. More rapid filtering time – only 15 minutes for all three fryers; 30 minutes less than the other filter pad with powder
2. There is no powder used with SuperSorb® and, hence, no handling or safety issues
3. Filtering is more effective – 0.5µm (micron) for the SuperSorb® technology versus 10µm for the other products
4. Enhanced product quality
5. Longer useable oil life
6. Lower daily cost than the other filter pad with adsorbent powder (over $1.00 per day less), and competitive with the DE impregnated paper (2 sheets used daily)

And, what may be most important to restaurant operators and their employees was an observation by the company’s team members that “Filtering is much faster and easier.” Finally, it is a fact of life that any technology that restaurant employees feel is easier and faster to use will, in fact, increase the chances that it is not only used, but will be used properly.

More about frying oil filtration …

The perfect French fry can be so much more than just a companion for burgers. If prepared well, the humble side can help your restaurant stand out among the competition and keep customers coming back for more. What does it take to craft the perfect, obsession-worthy French fry?

For the best results, start with genuine Idaho potatoes. Thanks to their 21% average solid content, Idaho potatoes contain the ideal low moisture needed to achieve French fry perfection. Select long, oval-shaped spuds, then peel them or leave the peel on depending on personal preference.

With your perfect potatoes prepped, it’s time to start cutting fries. Feed the potatoes through a wall-mounted or otherwise sturdy commercial potato cutter and place the resulting strips immediately into a container filled with cold water (a large plastic bucket will do just fine for this step). Add a tablespoon of white vinegar or citric acid to the water to prevent discoloration and place the container into a walk-in cooler.

Once your soon-to-be fries have expelled some of their starch, it’s time to begin the blanching stage. This step keeps the potatoes from oxidizing and turning dark during the frying process. Drain the potato strips using a salad spinner or mesh strainer to eliminate excess moisture and fill a basket on your deep fryer no more than halfway full of fries. Blanch at 325 – 350 °F (163 – 176 °C) for 3 – 5 minutes, depending on the size of your fries. Carefully lift and shake the basket halfway through the blanching process to help distribute the oil and fries.

Once blanching is complete, remove the fries from the fryer and allow to cool to room temperature, uncovered. To finish, refill the fry basket no more than halfway with your blanched fries and fry at 350 – 375 °F (176 – 190 °C) for 2 – 4 minutes until golden brown, shaking the basket halfway through. Remove the fries from the fryer to drain, and finish with salt.

Further tips:

• For the purest potato taste, use a dedicated fryer for French fries only.
• If your fryer has two or more baskets, use just one at a time. Overloading the fryer will cause the oil temperature to drop, leading to soggy, undercooked fries.
• Keep the fry oil clean and free from unwanted debris.
• For cleaner, longer-lasting oil and a better-tasting French fry, be sure to use FILTROX’s SuperSorb® CarbonPads in your fryer.

Special thanks to the Idaho Potato Commission for providing the information contained in this post.

One of the most important tools in your oil management tool box is the oil filter or treatment. For over fifty years, we have known some keys to properly managing oil are:

• Design, construction & maintenance of equipment

• Proper operation of equipment

• Proper cleaning of equipment

• Minimize exposure to UV

• Keep salt & metals away from oil

• Filter regularly

When it comes time to select a filter or treatment system for your oil, the first consideration is that the product has significant benefits to your operation.  The benefits could be improved food quality, longer oil life, or reduced frying oil usage. The operator should also make sure that the product that is selected not be absorbed or remain in the oil.  There are even some who feel that the filter or treatment system should never even be put into the oil believing that free form powders cannot be completely removed from the oil during the filtering process. 

Why such a constraint? 

If a product is put into the frying oil and allowed to stay in the oil, there is a potential for that product to get into the food rendering it adulterated.  Unless of course the fryer operator is going to declare that additive as part of the food. There have been documented cases in which laboratory testing of products fried in oil containing free form powders developed a gritty taste that was attributed to the powder. A later test of the batter on the product isolated the oil treatment product from the product coating. The more insidious oil treatment is a liquid product that some companies have actually said “Add to the oil and keep frying.”  That could and has been done, but were the additives declared?  Or, more to the point, if it was your operation, do you want to declare the additive?

The best filtration solutions

The best oil filter or treatment media are ones that are incorporated into pads or papers: pads or papers that have been rigorously tested and found to be stable. By stable, we mean that there is no leaching of the components into oil or water when subjected to testing. It also means that the product withstands high temperatures and variable flow rates and maintains its integrity. The laboratory data on stability must also be validated during actual use in frying systems.  It does no good to have great laboratory data if the product does not stand up to “real world” applications. And guess what? Our SuperSorb® products demonstrate all of the necessary characteristics in addition to being a great oil treatment method that will benefit your frying operations in many different ways.

We make a filter to fit most major fryer filter machines on the market. Start improving the life of your oil now and have more consistent food quality all while saving money.

More about frying oil filtration …

 One of the challenges for foodservice and restaurant operators is determining when to discard frying oil. Throwing oil away too soon can cost the operator significant money in the long run. But using the cooking oil for too long can also impact your business negatively. The latter is much worse. As food that is fried in overused oil is of poor quality and very likely be rejected by the consumer. For a business that relies on repeat sales, this is not a good thing.  That customer who purchased excessively greasy French fries or the burnt-looking fried chicken may never come to your restaurant again.

How does a restaurant operator determine when to dispose of their oil? At the third International Symposium on Deep-Fat Frying held in Hagen, Germany in 2000, the first recommendation made by attendees was the following:

The sensory parameter of food is prime quality index.

This is why people order fried food: it tastes and smells good and has a rich texture and mouthfeel.

To ensure that restaurant operators properly manage their oil, which includes determining when the oil should be discarded, it is imperative that the operators conduct the necessary evaluations. This is something that should be done by restaurant management, be it researchers for the large chains or store managers in smaller operations. This will ensure that management sets a clear guideline for when fry oil is past its prime.

There is no “one size fits all” answer to the question of when to discard used oil. To determine the ideal life of oil in your situation, you can conduct a simple experiment. Fry food until it is determined by management that the oil condition is no longer acceptable, making note of the amount of food produced. These frying studies should mirror actual restaurant practices and can even be conducted in real-time in a working restaurant. This observation process will allow the management to establish how long they can fry food before changing the oil.

These frying studies also provide operators with chance to evaluate different test systems aimed at providing the company with a true endpoint indicator. The test that is selected, whether it is a test strip, color comparator or a meter, should be run throughout the frying process. Then compare test results with sensory evaluation (fried food) to determine a measurable endpoint for discarding oil.

To extend oil life, saving money and keeping customers happy through consistent, high-quality food, consider switching to SuperSorb® Carbon Pads. SuperSorb® is proven to maintain oil life in the optimum range for longer versus other filters. Contact us today for a free sample and see the difference SuperSorb® can make for your oil life.

From fine dining to fast food, every restaurant sets up some kind of checklist for closing. Common tasks include taking out the trash, cleaning counters and floors, checking and cleaning restrooms, cleaning ovens and cookers, and much more, with the objective being to get the restaurant clean and ready for the following day’s service.

If the restaurant in question has deep-fat fryers, it’s important that they not be neglected in the closing process. End of the day activities for fryers should include scooping out food residue, filtering and/or treating the oil in the fryer, properly cleaning the fryers and topping off the fryer with fresh oil as necessary.

The final step

When all of this is done, be sure to remember the all-important final step! Cover the fryer pot with a cover designed to fit once the fryer is turned off and cooled, of course. Two components that accelerate oil degradation are light and exposure to air. Keeping a fry pot covered will help reduce this exposure.

To avoid the risk of contamination of the cooking oil overnight, remembering to replace the cover is crucial.  Do not leave the fryer uncovered. But why cover it if it is going to be heated up the next morning? Whatever falls in will be killed, right? This may not be the case for the cleaning compounds used on the floors, counters, ovens, or anywhere else during the cleaning process. Cleaning compounds contain metals such as sodium, calcium, and magnesium, and it only takes a little bit of any of these falling in during the cleaning process to ruin a fryer full of oil. The risk of contamination is also why the neutralization step previously mentioned is so important.

Follow your closing checklist to the letter! Make sure that the fryer is covered before you turn out the lights and lock the door. Proper frying techniques along with using FILTROX’s SuperSorb® pads help maximize the life of your frying oil.

More about frying oil filtration …

A frying oil maintenance schedule is important when it comes to the quality of food being sent out of your kitchen.

Several external factors can cause the breakdown of your frying oil. Light, soaps and oxygen can contribute to the oxidation of oil. While we cannot prevent the exposure of oil to air, we can limit oil’s exposure to certain light. Avoid fluorescent lights if possible. Ultraviolet light damages fats and oils. Contaminants can come from many sources including the types of food being fried, the application of seasonings to fried foods, poor cleaning practices which may leave soaps or detergents in the fryer or poor maintenance practices.

Proper maintenance of your frying oil consists of following a few steps that will prolong the life of your oil. Consider incorporating the following into your maintenance schedule and routine.

1. Shake ice crystals off frozen foods before putting them in the fryer
2. Avoid seasoning or salting food over the fryer to keep debris down
3. Filter oil using a skimmer to pull larger sediments out
4. Turn off or reduce fryer temperature at slow times to keep from oil breaking down at faster rate
5. Cover your fryers at the end of day

In addition to these best practices, it’s imperative to track the quality of your oil throughout the day to keep oil fresh. For best results we recommend checking the oil twice daily.  Download our free monthly frying oil log to track changes in your fryer’s oil. To extend the life of your oil, consider switching to SuperSorb® products that remove contaminants from the oil down to 0.5 micron. Contact our experts for more information.

Oils that contain higher amounts of monounsaturated fats, such as canola and peanut oil, tend to be among the healthier options since they help lower your low-density lipoprotein or bad cholesterol. While at the same time increasing your good cholesterol. Understanding the composition, smoke point and flavors of these oils can help you determine which is the best to use with different foods or situations. Here a comparison of canola vs. peanut oil:

Canola Oil

Canola oil is one of the oils highest in monounsaturated fat, with 62%, along with 7% saturated fat and 31% polyunsaturated fat. After olive and sunflower oil, canola is the next highest in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. It can be used as a salad dressing and for baking and frying. This neutral-tasting oil is obtained from rapeseed, a mustard relative. Because rapeseed is commonly sprayed with pesticides, be sure to look for organic, expeller-pressed brands of canola oil. You’ll find it already added to foods such as oven-baked chips and frozen fish fillets. But with a high smoke point of around 205 °F (96 °C) canola is a good all-purpose cooking oil. It does become unstable after heating, so never reuse.

Peanut Oil

Peanut oil is higher in saturated fat, with 18%, making it slightly less healthy than canola oil, but it still contains 48% monounsaturated fat and 34% polyunsaturated fat. An all-purpose oil that’s high in monounsaturated fats, peanut oil is also about 30% polyunsaturated fats and 20% saturated. Because it has a high smoke point, it’s prized for frying. Most commercial brands are chemically processed, though expeller-pressed brands are available at specialty stores and online. Peanut oil has a longer shelf life than other oils. Best for Asian cooking, especially stir-fries.

Go to the frying oil filtration page and find out how SuperSorb Carbon Pads can extend frying oil life

When prepared and cooked properly, fried chicken can be one of the world’s most delicious foods. Whether it’s Korean fried chicken, which has a light and crunchy batter, Nashville hot chicken tossed in a spicy, oil-based sauce, or the classic Southern fried chicken that many of us are used to.

Fried chicken and other battered deep-fried foods require a temperature of 350 – 375 °F (176 °C – 190 °C) to maintain a crispy outside without absorbing the oil and becoming greasy. For these foods, you’ll want to select a frying oil with a high smoke point to maintain consistent quality and flavor. Vegetable oil is always a good choice because of its neutral flavor and affordability, particularly if you are a large volume foodservice operation and need to continuously prepare a large amount. When chicken is fried, fat is rendered from the chicken into the frying oil, so over time what was once a liquid oil at room temperature, will become a hard fat due to the rendering process.

It’s also important to establish educational components in your frying operation. Operators must learn the proper frying and cleaning techniques in order to produce the most consistent food quality.

These guidelines should include:

• Proper maintenance of the fryer
• Proper cleaning of the fryer
• Proper fryer operation
• Management of frying temperatures
• Avoiding contact with metals such as copper and bronze
• Proper food handling
• Filtering or treating oil

Properly managing oil may also help keep the fryers cleaner. Some operators have reported that one benefit of treating oil has been a reduction of polymer formation, which allows restaurants to not only reduce chemical usage, but allows a “greener” cleaning chemical.

With FILTROX’s SuperSorb® Filter technology, making fried chicken is cleaner and easier than ever. The uniquely patented design of SuperSorb® works to filter oil to a nano, invisible 0.5 micron, trapping pollutants and contaminants that would normally stay in the oil leading to faster breakdown.

Ramp up your frying operation and produce better tasting, more consistent deep-fried chicken with the help of SuperSorb® CarbonPads. Contact FILTROX today to learn more!