A guide to cleaning the oil fryers in your commercial kitchen, plus the best way to tell if your fryer oil needs to be replaced.

The effective cleaning and maintenance of your commercial kitchen fryer is integral to driving standards of food safety and product quality – protecting both your consumers and your reputation. This is also true of the accurate and reliable management of your fryer oil.

With this in mind, we have created an article that answers the five questions listed below:

There are valuable learnings in each section, but you can also click the links to jump ahead.

Why is it so important to clean the oil fryers in your commercial kitchen?

As mentioned above, the effective cleaning and maintenance of kitchen equipment is essential to driving standards of food safety and product quality – protecting your consumers and the reputation of your establishment.

It is also worth noting that an unclean commercial fryer is far from cost-effective. Firstly, a dirty fryer is more likely to struggle to reach optimal temperatures, requiring more time and energy to heat up.

Secondly, any debris in the fryer could be shortening the lifespan of your oil, upping the frequency of your team having to carry out costly and time-consuming replacements.

Thirdly, the ongoing build-up of residue will make your fryer so much harder to clean. It will also shorten the lifespan of the fryer itself, increasing the likelihood that your equipment will need to be repaired or replaced.

Cleaning your commercial fryer is also directly linked to health and safety, as dirty or greasy surfaces can become a serious fire hazard. What’s more, any spills or debris surrounding the fryer could cause your team to slip and fall.

Finally, the effective cleaning of your commercial fryer will also be essential if your establishment makes the switch to a different recipe or range of ingredients, especially if allergens are involved. For example, changing fish and chip batter to a gluten-free alternative.

What equipment do you need to clean a commercial fryer?

Long-handled brushes

A long-handled brush can be used to scrub the interior of your fryer, without forcing your team to reach inside.

Detail cleaning equipment

Your team will also benefit from a smaller brush that can fit into tight spaces (e.g. between the fryer coils).

Microfibre cleaning cloths

Microfibre cloths can be used to clean and dry your commercial fryer without scratching the equipment.

Suitable cleaning solutions

Check your choice of cleaning solution or degreaser against the manufacturer’s guidelines for your oil fryer.

Floor mops and buckets

Cleaning around the base of your commercial fryer will help to protect your team from trips and falls.

PPE (e.g. gloves, aprons, eyewear)

Carry out a risk assessment of the cleaning process and decide if your team needs to be equipped with PPE.

How do you safely and legally dispose of your commercial fryer oil?

The most important point to remember is that your oil needs to be collected by an authorised cooking oil collection service. As it is from a commercial premises, it cannot be handled by a household collection service or taken to a household recycling centre.

It is also vital that your team doesn’t pour any oil down your drains or sewers. Not only is this bad for the environment (polluting the water), but it could also lead to blockages, foul odours, and pest control issues – a worry for the reputation of your business and your site’s food safety rating.

It is likely that your authorised collection service will provide instructions on how they would like you to prepare the oil for their arrival. They may be happy to take the oil in its original containers or they might provide their own containers for collection.

One final point to consider is what will happen to the fryer oil once it has been collected from your site. Partnering with a sustainable oil collection service (e.g. a company that turns your oil waste into transport fuel) could help your business to meet its sustainability targets, impressing eco-conscious customers along the way.

How do you clean a commercial fryer?

First, you need to review the cleaning schedule for your kitchen, making sure your commercial fryer is being cleaned as often as it should be and in the correct way. The schedule should then be placed in a highly visible area of your site, as this will help to nurture a culture of accountability. If you would like a striking design that incorporates your company branding, you should explore the benefits of visual management solutions.

Alongside your cleaning schedule, you should also encourage your team to adopt a ‘clean-as-you-go’ approach – skimming the fryer oil throughout service and dealing with any spills immediately.

Finally, you will need to carry out regular inspections of your commercial fryers and wider kitchen environment. Again, this will help to nurture a culture of accountability. It will also give you the opportunity to resolve any issues before they result in a food safety incident.

Step-by-step instructions

  1. Turn off the power source and allow the oil to cool. Use a thermometer to check the oil is a safe temperature.
  2. Remove the baskets from your fryer and soak them in warm water to soften any stubborn residues. Scrub the baskets until they are clean and free from debris.
  3. Carefully drain the fryer oil into a suitable container. This could be the container the oil came in or the container the oil is going to be collected in. If your containers are awkwardly shaped, you could always use a production bucket, then decant the oil into the containers from there.
  4. Once the fryer is completely drained of oil, remove any remaining debris with a strainer or slotted ladle. Make sure to remove anything that could be blocking the drain valve.
  5. Using a mix of long-handled brushes, detail cleaning equipment, and your chosen cleaning solution, clean the interior of the fryer.
  6. Rinse the fryer, then drain it of any rinse water.
  7. Using a soft cloth, remove any remaining moisture. This step is key to reducing the risk of rust.
  8. Return any hardware to the fryer, along with the baskets.
  9. Make sure the oil draining valve is closed before replacing or returning the commercial fryer oil.

How do you know when it’s time to replace your commercial fryer oil?

The effective cleaning and maintenance of your commercial fryer will help to extend the lifespan of your oil. This is also true of skimming the oil throughout service – removing any debris before it has the chance to impact the degradation process.

When it comes to working out if your oil needs to be replaced, there are three methods to consider:

Visual Checks

Some kitchen teams rely on Visual Checks, with their decision based on the colour of the oil and the way it changes over time. This is a subjective approach that is unreliable for two key reasons. First, the rate of darkening differs from oil to oil. It also depends on how regularly the oil is filtered and the products being fried.

Secondly, different team members will have different views on how dark the oil needs to be before it is changed, leading to inconsistencies. This approach could result in your kitchen wasting money on unnecessary oil changes. It also increases the risk of your team working with oil that has reached the end of its lifespan – undermining food safety and product quality.

Free Fatty Acids (FFA) Test Strips

Other kitchen teams use Free Fatty Acids (FFA) Test Strips. When dipped into fryer oil, an FFA Test Strip will change colour depending on the level of Free Fatty Acids. Your team will then need to compare the colour of the strip to a colour reference chart.

Although FFA Test Strips are more reliable than Visual Checks, offering an overall accuracy of roughly 80%, they still rely on your team making the right call when comparing the strips to the colour chart. Again, this is a highly subjective process, impacted by lighting, angles, and attention to detail. It is also worth noting that FFA Test Strips will often become compromised by improper storage. As a single-use solution, they also have an ongoing cost of around £300 per year.

Food Oil Monitors

A growing number of sites have made the switch to Food Oil Monitors. Instead of a subjective approach, Food Oil Monitors provide a numerical value of Total Polar Materials (TPM). They also operate under a traffic light system – flashing green if the oil is fine to use, amber if the oil will need to be changed soon, and red if the oil needs to be changed immediately.

By removing the guesswork from oil management, commercial kitchens have been able to cut their oil use by up to 52%. This has resulted in an on-going reduction in costs, along with improved standards of food safety and product quality.

Click here to learn more about Food Oil Monitors

That brings us to the end of our guide to cleaning the oil fryers in your commercial kitchen. We hope this article has highlighted the importance of this task in regards to food safety, product quality, and the wellbeing of your team.

If you have any questions relating to oil usage at your site or the solutions mentioned throughout this article, our in-house team of experts are here to help.

You can contact them directly on 01473461800 or sales@klipspringer.com. Alternatively, you can fill out the contact form below and one of our friendly team members will be in touch.

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