If you haven’t got an air fryer by now, then you’re probably Patrick Star, or at least rooming with him.
Whether you live on the set of Spongebob or not, you will have heard of the air fryer even if you haven’t used or bought one yourself, but experts have now confirmed there is a safety issue with them while cooking certain foods.
So, what are these counter-top cookers?
While convection ovens, to give them their actual name, have been widely used since 1945, it wasn’t until 2006 that a French manufacturer developed an appliance under the Actifry brand that circulates hot air around the meal while continuously churning it.
Philips, a convection oven manufacturer based in the United Kingdom, established the air fryer brand in 2010, and by 2018, the phrase ‘air fryer’ was being used generally.
However, the air fryer surged in the United States when it first hit the market in 2017, and it grew even more during the pandemic, when viral culinary videos on TikTok saw them in high demand.
Over the year from 2021 to 2022, sales surpassed more than $1 billion – a whopping 20 percent increase on the year before, while its reported that as of 2023, nearly 60 percent of American households own them at home, according to Nestle’s Adam Graves.
Experts at Which?, a UK-based organization that tests products to encourage informed consumer choice in the purchase of goods and services, have advised you on what you should avoid when cooking.
ADVERTISEMENT
