This popular kitchen appliance is the least polluting cooking method, study finds

The air fryer, which has become an increasingly popular kitchen appliance, is the least polluting cooking method, according to a new study.

In Canada, air fryers have a market revenue of more than $179 million (US$128 million), according to statistics publication Market.us News. By the end of 2032, air fryers are expected to reach a revenue of roughly US$1.8 trillion on a global scale, per Market.us.

No matter how it’s done, though, cooking inside impacts the quality of air, as reported by Health Canada. Researchers at the University of Birmingham decided to put different methods to test in a study published on Nov. 25 in the journal Indoor Air. Its findings revealed the safest appliance to use in the kitchen is an air fryer.

This comes after concerns from U.S. and Canadian officials about air pollution in the home last year. In January 2023, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. called gas stoves a “hidden hazard” after a study came out linking them to childhood asthma. In Canada, some even pushed for gas stoves to be removed. “If that isn’t motivation for us to get gas out of buildings and homes in B.C. and across Canada, I don’t know what is,” wrote president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment Dr. Melissa Lem in a post on X.

“People with existing heart and lung conditions (including asthma), young children, and older adults tend to be more susceptible to the adverse health effects” of pollutants related to cooking, according to the federal Canadian government.

Exposure to such pollutants can lead to irritation of the eyes, nose, throat as well as respiratory symptoms such as wheezing, coughing, and shortness of breath. It can also lead to headache, fatigue, and flu-like symptoms or to the worsening of lung and heart conditions like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and heart disease, the government says online.

“Most people spend more than 80 per cent of their time indoors, so the effects of indoor pollutants…are a major health concern,” according to a news release about the latest study.

Researchers compared five different ways to cook chicken breast: pan frying, stir-frying, deep-fat frying, boiling and air-frying.

The cooking was done in a well-controlled research kitchen, said researchers, where they “measured the levels of particulate matter and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by each method.”

For particulate matter — the general term used for a mixture of solid particles and liquid droplets in the air, according to Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks  — the most polluting method was pan frying. It had a peak concentration of 92.9 micrograms per cubic metre of air. Next was stir-frying at 26.7, followed by deep frying at 7.7 and boiling at 0.7.

When it came to using the air fryer, the peak concentration was 0.6 micrograms per cubic metre of air.

Researchers then measured the VOCs in parts per billion or ppb.

“The relative levels of pollution were in a similar order across the different cooking methods as for the particulate matter emissions, with pan-frying recording 260 ppb of VOCs; deep frying 230 ppb, stir-frying 110 ppb; boiling 30 ppb and air-frying 20 ppb,” the study found.

Lead author professor Christian Pfrang said a number of factors can affect the levels of pollution when cooking, “including the amount of oil used, and the temperature of the stove.”

“What we can say with certainty, however, is that improving the ventilation in kitchens by opening windows or using extractor fans, will help to disperse polluting particles and reduce personal exposure,” he said.

“It’s also really important to understand that particles will remain in the air for quite some time after you have finished cooking, so continuing to ventilate, or keeping extractor fans turned on for a period of time will really help to avoid the build-up of this indoor pollution and reduce the potential for the pollutants to be transported and distributed throughout the house with the associated higher personal exposures.”

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