Different types of fryers for the food industry

Abstract

Frying is an age-old processing technique, with a pan or a pot being its essential tool. The amount of oil or fat used, level of heat, frying time, and even the style of stirring, have set the foundation for many different frying methods. This in turn has given way to developing different fryers, starting with pans of different shapes and sizes, and continuing with a wide selection of electrical automated equipment. While some fryers mimic existing practices, like deep fryers or automated stir fryers, others offer alternative approaches, like air, vacuum, or pressure fryers. Thus, this chapter starts by introducing traditional frying methods and their currently available fryer types and will continue by focusing on alternative fryer options. In addition to an overview of conventional and alternative fryer types, the chapter will elaborate on them based on different production scales. Domestic kitchen fryers are meant for light use and they should not take up much kitchen space; whereas, commercial fryers are designed for more intense use in the foodservice sector for serving customers and are thus bigger in size and more sturdy. Domestic and commercial frying are commonly batch processes, meaning that a specific amount of food is fried at once. For example, pan-frying is a batch process in which food is loaded into the pan, fried, and removed from the pan when ready. Afterward, another batch of food could be fried. In addition to commercial batch fryers, this chapter will explore their currently available continuous versions as well, where food goes continuously in from one end of the fryer and exits from the other end, fried. On the other hand, industrial batch or continuous fryers are meant for large-scale production of fried products, not for direct consumption, but to be packaged and distributed, which might end up as finished products in retail stores or intermediate products in food services. Compared to one another, fryers have their advantages and disadvantages, such as price, size, frying speed, operating complexity, production capacity, end-product taste, texture, and heath, which become decisive in the most suitable fryer selection and oftentimes also drive fryer development and innovation. Thus, different fryer advantages and disadvantages will be compared in more detail under fryer selection, followed by insights into fryer development in food industries and current fryer innovation.