Fryers that use the air and just oil (and in case of frozen products or that). They are advertised as healthy and very practical. Just enter the food choose the time temperature and go. ! Voilà you already have ‘no oil’ fries. The reality is very different. The OCU analyzes one of these fryers and warns that they are expensive and their results leave much to be desired.
The possibility of taking lighter ‘fries’ without oil or croquettes makes many people interested in the so-called air fryers. These fryers are expensive (around 200 euros) and deep down they are still like ‘a kind of oven’ that uses air. But they may also have more risk than a conventional fryer, for example, that a carcinogenic substance called acrylamides accumulates more than in conventional fryers.
2020 Best Air Fryers
1. COSORI Smart WiFi Air Fryer 5.8
2. Ninja Air Fryer
3. Chefman 6.3 Quart Digital Air Fryer
4. Yedi Total Package Air Fryer
HOW DO AIR FRYERS WORK?
They work using hot air that circulates quickly around food. What is cooking them. If the chips are frozen that are already pre-fried, you don’t need a drop of oil to cook them. If they are natural potatoes you need a teaspoon. The difference is that potatoes or any other food hardly carries oil, so it is much lighter.
Is An Air Fryer Worth It?
In the test center of the Organization of consumers and users the OCU, tested two of these airless fryers, one of the Tefal brand and another of the Philips brand, the AirFryer. Their conclusion is that it is NOT worth one of these fryers. They compared an air fryer and a conventional fryer with oil, to see if it was worth it or not. Let’s see their conclusions
The fried ones have a bad taste and bad appearance in the air fryers. They
fried both frozen and fresh potatoes in an air / and in an oil fryer.
In the air the fried ones looked bad and tasted bad. The best fries were those cooked in the conventional fryer not in the air fryer. In the air fryer the food was not cooked in a homogeneous way, there were more ‘made’ areas than others. The potatoes were not crispy and tasted quite like raw potato. The most likely cause is that the temperature at which the fryer cooks without air is not homogeneous.
They consume more electricity than a conventional electric fryer. For example, the Philips AirFryer consumes about 390Wh to fry half a kilo of potatoes. This is 25% more electricity than a classic fryer uses.
They take longer to cook. For example, if you make potatoes in a conventional fryer you can take about 11 minutes, in an air range they go from 17-21 minutes.
Risk of substances dangerous to health
Acrylamides are substances that are formed during the process of frying or baking foods that have many carbohydrates such as chips, or cookies. WHO has warned that there is a risk of the formation of a potentially carcinogenic substance detected in the frying of some foods, for example potatoes when they are fried at high temperatures.
High temperatures above 100 degrees. The longer the food is exposed to high temperatures the more risk that this substance is produced.
It is recommended to decrease the formation of acrylamides. Reduce cooking times. Do not let food toast a lot. Foods in large and thick pieces have less acrylamide. In fryers do not use maximum temperatures.
Avoid reheating foods that we have fried in the microwave beforehand.
In air fryers, taking longer to cook the food and not having a homogeneous temperature, the risk of acrylamides forming is greater than in a conventional fryer.
IF I WANT AN AIR FRYER, WHICH ONE SHOULD I BUY? – OIL FREE FRYERS
Although we have seen that they are not the most recommended for our food, they can be useful when cooking fast for many people. In fact, it is common to use industrial air fryers in restaurants. So if you want to buy a fryer for specific occasions at home, we recommend these models, which you can find at Amazon at a good price and that are also the healthiest option because they do not require almost cooking oil.
AICOK FRYER WITHOUT OIL
The Aicok fryer allows us to fry potatoes and other things such as croquettes, chicken wings, empanadillas, etc., with just a tablespoon of oil. It has seven available modes that, in addition to frying, allows us to roast, cook, etc. It is very easy to use and clean and, due to its capacity, we can cook up to 5 people at once. It is the best selling model on Amazon.
PRINCESS DIGITAL AEROFRYER XL
The novelty of the Princess Digital Aerofryer XL is that it is a digital fryer, so we can control the cooking time of each food much more and, like the other model, it allows us to fry with fewer calories and also roast and cook . It also makes portions for 5 people and is completely removable to be able to wash it in the dishwasher, which makes it much more practical. You can find it on Amazon.
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