In the kitchen, your used frying oil can be reused as soap or turned into other products. But depending, it needs to be discarded.
Cooking oil is widely used by everyone. Essential for preparing fried foods, such as meat, vegetables and legumes, it is present in every home. However, everyone has probably wondered or heard about how to dispose of or reuse used frying oil, whether as soap or other substances. In short, that’s what you’re going to read about here.
Used to fry meat, chicken, fish, vegetables and legumes, household oil should not be thrown down the sink after use. A liter of frying oil thrown away in the sink can clog pipes (oil combined with detergent turns into soap and sticks), attracts animals such as rats and insects and can also contaminate a million liters of water. In short, it is the amount of water consumed in 14 years by just one person.
With used oil, you can reuse it depending on the time and type of food you dipped in it. Additionally, you can make bar and liquid soap, or find a collection and recycling point closest to your home. When thrown in the general trash, the oil gives off a terrible odor, releases methane, which increases global warming and can contaminate groundwater.
Frying oil
Whether made from soy, corn or sunflower, it is more suitable than olive oil for frying, as it reaches ideal temperatures for frying a food (from 180ºC to 190ºC) and does not degrade when it reaches them.
When oil reaches very high temperatures inside a pan, its chemical composition changes and acrolein is released. This toxic substance is harmful to the health of the stomach and intestine, and is also an oxidant.
How to reuse frying oil
To be able to reuse frying oil, you need to evaluate the type of food that was fried in it. If you have fried vegetables, it can be reused up to six days later. However, you should not mix food in the frying pan. For example, if potatoes were fried in this oil, then do not fry fish in it.
When mixing foods, the taste of meat remains in the oil (like fish and seafood) and can be transferred to the other food, in addition to worsening acrolein levels. Therefore, potato oil should only be reused for frying potatoes; of fish, reused for fish, and so on.
Making soap
The best way to find another use for cooking oil is to turn it into something useful. So, in addition to contributing to the environment, you can also save on market bills by turning your frying oil into soap. However, first you will need:
Ingredients
- 1 kilo (equal to 1 liter) of used cooking oil;
- 140 ml of water;
- 135 grams of caustic soda in pieces (concentration greater than 95%);
- 25 ml of alcohol (optional).
Anyway, to make things easier, here is a very educational video showing you step by step how to make soap with frying oil.
Correct disposal
Finally, frying oil should not be disposed of in the general trash or down the sink. Recycling, above all, is not difficult. In addition to the soap, as we showed, if you prefer, you can take it to the selective collection point closest to your home. You can find them on various search engines on the internet.
After using the oil, wait for it to cool and place it in a container (preferably glass). When taking the used oil for recycling, from there it will be sent to places specializing in its transformation into other materials.
It can be turned into detergent, soap, cosmetics, paints, animal feed, glass putty or even biodiesel. If it is not possible to take the oil to the collection point, there are also people who buy used cooking oil on the internet.
Anyway, did you like this article? Then you’ll also like these:
Simple trick eliminates the smell of frying in the house after cooking
Oil-free electric fryer – How to use, advantages and best brands
Coconut soap – Benefits, uses, how to use and how to make it at home
Sources: Ecycle0 and UOL.
Images: Pixabay, Ratraca Livre, Correio, Pinterest and How to Make It Easy.
