While frying remains an important medium of cooking in the kitchen, better oil filtration helps restaurants, sweet shops and small food businesses improve food quality, manage oil costs and reduce avoidable waste and homemakers must be very careful while using cooking oil in their kitchen, explains Amit Gupta, co-founder and director, Klassic Klarol Filters Pvt. Ltd in a conversation with Sheezan NezamiWhy is managing cooking oil important, especially when the same oil is repeatedly used in restaurants?Repeated frying, especially in commercial kitchens where a huge quantity of oil is used, exposes the oil to heat, oxygen, moisture and food residues, leading to chemical deterioration with elevated levels of polar compounds. Degraded oil also affects the quality of food and poses health risks. Hence proper oil management is essential to maintain food safety, consistency, especially in case of commercial kitchens where cost also matters.What should individual households do in their kitchen?As far as household kitchens are concerned, it’s always advisable to discard the oil after one or maximum two uses. Since filtration is expensive, using fresh oil is more convenient here. Also, in case of individual houses, the quantity of oil used is much less and can be discarded. It should be discarded when its quality deteriorates beyond acceptable limits. A total polar compounds (TPC) value exceeding 25% is the prescribed discard threshold in India. Regular TPC testing, along with checks for unusual odour, excessive foaming, smoke at lower temperatures and poor frying performance, can help businesses decide when to replace oil. Even fresh oil added to the oil which has been used several times is not good from a health point of view.What should homemakers keep in mind while buying and using cooking oil?Choose properly packaged oil from an established brand and check its FSSAI licence details, batch number, manufacturing date and best-before information. Avoid repeatedly overheating or storing used oil for long periods before reusing it. Proper storage is another important thing. Keep the container tightly closed, away from direct sunlight and heat and in a cool, dry location as oxygen, light and heat all accelerate oxidation. Households should prioritise correct use and timely disposal rather than relying on filtration, which is particularly relevant for bulk frying operations.What tips will you give for safe oil use? When should one discard the oil?Don’t allow oil to smoke. Excessive heating accelerates oxidation and other degradation reactions. Be careful about reusing frying oil and look for signs that the oil has deteriorated, like persistent darkening, unusual or rancid smell, excessive foaming, smoke appearing at unusually low temperatures, excessive viscosity/stickiness and poor frying performance. Few households store the used oil in a container and then re-use it after a long gap, further deteriorating the oil and harming the health of family members.Can you suggest which oil should one opt keeping in mind health issues?Mustard oil, olive oil and even groundnut oil are among the good ones. Of course, ghee is also good for health. No doubt using less oil is the best mantra. Palm oil is relatively high in saturated fat and WHO currently recommends replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats where possible and specifically lists palm oil among sources of saturated fat.How can commercial establishments maintain oil quality when frying in bulk?Filtration becomes much more relevant where large quantities of oil are used repeatedly, such as QSRs, restaurants, sweet shops, namkeen manufacturers and commercial fryers. There, removing food particles quickly can materially help control deterioration and extend usable oil life. Businesses should filter oil regularly, remove food residues and avoid unnecessary overheating. They should also monitor oil quality throughout the frying cycle. Filtration plays an important role here. It removes food particles, crumbs, spices and carbonised residues that accumulate during frying. Keeping oil cleaner helps maintain consistent frying conditions, improve oil utilisation and reduce avoidable oil loss. It can also help maintain the quality and appearance of fried food.What are your plans for East & Northeast India?Eastern India has enormous potential in food processing, particularly among sweet shops, namkeen manufacturers, restaurants, hotels, quick service restaurants and thousands of micro and small food businesses. We are also contributing in a big way by bringing practical technology for better frying-oil management, helping businesses improve oil utilisation, reduce avoidable wastage and adopt more responsible practices. Our plan is to develop the “Eat Right Eastern India – 1000/100/50 Mission” — partnering with FSSAI, governments and CSR/philanthropic organisations to transform 1,000 schools, 100 institutions and 50 food-market clusters in the region. The objective would be to take the principles of the Eat Right India movement to the ground level—creating greater awareness about food safety and healthy eating among others.
