(1) Fryer Basket

A fryer basket is submerged in oil and an employee counts how many rows are visible. If you cannot count to the benchmark number of rows, then the deep fryer oil is deemed bad and needs to be changed.   

The manager or chef must establish a reference point on the fryer basket that constitutes bad oil.

Long thin strips of paper that measure free fatty acids (FFA) in cooking oil. A test strip is submerged in fryer oil at operating temperature for 2 or 3 seconds, removed, then inspected against a reference chart. If the test strip exceeds the reference point, then it is time to change the oil. 

The digital cooking oil tester measures the total polar molecules (TPM) of cooking oil. Measuring the TPM is essentially measuring the fat breakdown of the oil. Extremely accurate with an average accuracy of 90%. The discard points are between 25% – 27% TPM depending on local regulation.

Visually compare the oil from the fryer with a predetermined reference oil. Kit comes with one or two reference points. One reference point is considered the “sweet spot” of deep fryer oil while the other references bad oil. The test kit will also provide an eye dropper, so an employee can retrieve oil from the fryer and compare.