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Indulgent Fried Food at Fairs Can Mean Tough Fryer Clean Ups

From sea to shining sea, there’s a lot of extraordinary food – fried food. And no better place to spot it than at state fairs across the U.S., which offer an extravaganza of indulgence, fun and once-a-year extremes of sights, sounds and tastes – some of the strangest being fried.

From fried collard greens (healthy, right?) to fried candy bars like Snickers, Mounds and Kit Kats, the state fairs have it all. Heck, we’ve even heard of fried beer, fried butter, fried Oreos, and fried lemonade. A brand new reality show premiered on A&E just last month in March, Deep Fried Dynasty, which profiles some amazing entrepreneurs firing up their fryers to feed folks at the State Fair of Texas and make money.

We looked at a couple of those episodes and wondered just what the insides of those fryers look like. We think it’s a valid question from a brand that cleans fryers for a living.

Most state fairs run for two to three weeks and churn out a large quantity of fried food. The earliest state fair happens annually in February in Tampa, our home state of Florida, but typically summer is the time to peruse state fairs for uncommon sights like big pigs, grandstand concerts, champion livestock, and out-of-this-world strange food. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is one such event, and not too long Filta’s Franchise Owner, Mike Powers, filtered 44,010 pounds of cooking oil from more than 650 fryers and converted 33,580 pounds of cooking oil into biofuel from more than 500 fryers at the rodeo. Read the full article in The Houston Chronicle here.

So, when there’s heat, crowds, and pressure what could go wrong?

With fried food, if it doesn’t taste good (tainted oil and such), well, the jig is up. Take it from us, a brand that filters cooking oil in some of the largest commercial kitchens in the nation, if the quality is sub-par, the outcome will be the same.

Frying oil is a delicate but predictable thing. You can extend the life of it with micro-filtering, but at some point, that hot oil will need to be drained and replaced. Safety is key and it’s best left to the experts, like Filta.

Take it from, us, a brand that filters cooking oil on a daily basis, that can be a tough nut to crack. But when it’s sweet – like deep fried sugar cream pie or fried Oreos – it’s well worth the effort.