The Ultimate Facts You Might Not Know About Cooking Oil Tester

Cooking oil, or as widely popular edible oil, is one of the most basic cooking ingredients beneficial for almost every dish. It is a plant, animal, or synthetic liquid fat used for cooking purposes like frying, baking, seasonings, salad dressings, etc.

Used in daily cooking across the globe, cooking oils are extracted from a number of types, including sunflower, sesame, olive, groundnut, coconut, etc.

Cooking oils are generally composed of triglycerides, the predominant component of most food fats and oils. The minor components include mono- and diglycerides, free fatty acids, phosphatides, sterols, fatty alcohols, fat-soluble vitamins, and other substances.

When used in small amounts, cooking oils are not harmful. However, when you use cooking oils in larger quantities in the cooking, for instance, when you deep fry food, you absorb a large amount of oil in the food. As you consume this food, you actually overconsume fats, mainly saturated and Trans fats. This may increase cholesterol levels, thus increasing the risk of high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, cancer, hardening of the arteries, heart attack, and stroke. Which is why, you need digital cooking oil testers to prevent consumption of contaminated oil.

Especially frying oils use oil (instead of water or heat) for cooking the food. When food is dropped into the oil, the moisture forms steam. In some time, you will see bubbles accumulating around the food, which results in the evaporation of the steam. A chemical reaction is initiated by oxygen, water, and steam in the process. Various degradation substances are produced in the fat due to this chemical reaction. These substances are called as total polar materials (TPM).

In simple terms, TPM is nothing but free fatty acids, monoglycerides, diglycerides, and a number of oxidation products. TPMs contaminate the oil and impair its quality.

In addition, the remaining oil left after frying the food is reused for other cooking purposes or even frying other food again(Oils are expensive, let’s admit, there won’t be a single person across the globe who throws frying oil after one use).

Reusing of oils contaminates the oil adversely and increases free radicals in the body, which can cause inflammation, which is ultimately the root cause of most diseases. High inflammation in the body can also reduce immunity and make you prone to infections. Reheating oil, again and again, initiate reactions like hydrolysis, oxidation, and polymerization. This is the crucial reason for the oil getting contaminated.

This is why, if you are raising the quantity of oils in your food, you got to test its quality. The cooking oil testers are used for this purpose to test the quality of reused cooking oil.

After understanding a brief about cooking oils and cooking oil testers, let’s move on with the key facts you might not know about.

Facts You Should Know About Cooking Oil Testers

The Total Polar Material (TPM) content in cooking oil is a sure indicator of its age and quality. Cooking oil develops its best potential between 14 and 20 % TPM. If the oil is too old, it shows an increased TPM value, and deep-fried goods of inferior quality are produced. It can furthermore contain substances that present a health risk.

Cooking oil testers reduce health hazards that might cause due to consumption of the contaminated oil.

Cooking oil testers reduce cooking oil costs by up to 20 %. Regular measurement prevents the oil from being replaced too early or too late – this can reduce your cooking oil consumption by up to 20 %, thus saving costs.

It is recommended that when the value of TPM exceeds 25 percent, frying oil should be discarded. However, different countries have different limit values and ensure to replace the frying oil before reaching the limit value.

If you are wondering how you can measure quality of cooking oil Other than cooking oil testers, you will find several other methods like column chromatography, capacitive measurement, test rod, color check, and smoke point identification are used to determine the TPM value. However, the cooking oil testers are handier to use.

Lastly, cooking oil testers guarantee that the oil and the foods prepared in it are of the highest quality, ensuring a sense of satisfaction among foodies around the world.

Take Away

Consuming contaminated oil, especially reused oil, is highly harmful to human health; hence it is very important to discard the reused oil as soon as it is tested. Measuring TPM makes it possible to adjust the fat to the optimum deep-frying range. The advanced digital cooking oil tester found nowadays makes this measuring process easy to handle and quick to get results.

It is highly recommended to use cooking oil testing methods to avoid the consumption of harmful substances in the form of reused oil.