Chippies battered by soaring oil costs take up air frying to avoid forking out

CHIP shops are embracing air fryers as oil costs skyrocket, forcing businesses to ditch deep-fat frying.

Cooking oil prices have jumped by almost a fifth over the past year, and have been driven higher by the war in Ukraine.

The largest price increases are in sunflower oil and vegetable oil, which are up 39 per cent since last spring.

About half of the oil used by fish and chip shops had come from Ukraine, and the businesses are now facing rising costs to keep the fryers on.

Industry chiefs said restaurant bosses are scrambling to figure out how they can cut back the amount of oil they use for cooking, with some already starting to ditch deep-fried dishes.

Ibrahim Dogus, chairman of the British Takeaway Campaign, said takeaways were cutting items such as deep-fried brie, while others were looking for alternative ways of cooking other deep-fried items.

He said: “I think what we’ll see is peo- ple looking for a different way of cooking their chips rather than frying them in oil, so maybe that’s air-frying them. They’ll be looking at all the different options.”

Mr Dogus said the likelihood is that “we will see fewer items on menus, particularly those oil-intensive ones”.

He added that, in recent weeks, the price of a 20-litre tin of cooking oil had risen from £16 to £48. Deep-frying dishes can also be more energy-intensive, meaning restaurants are having to spend more on their utility bills.

Estimates suggest that one in three fish and chip shops could collapse within the next six months if rising costs do not level off soon.

There are also separate challenges that chippies using air fryers face. Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers, said the process may work for french fries, but thick cut British chips are more of a challenge to cook through. The group is teaching businesses how to make their oil last longer by managing it better and using technology that could absorb oil impurities.

Restaurants are trying not to pass rising costs on to customers. Mr Dogus said many bosses had already raised their prices to cope with inflation, but further price increases could be on the horizon.

He said: “I also run a couple of small restaurants, and we put up our prices about a month ago, hoping that this will keep us going for the whole year.

“But the prices of ingredients have gone up again and one of our kebab dishes, for example, we’re making at a loss, so we’ll have to put that price up soon.”

Meat and fish prices, in particular, have been pushed up in recent weeks, prompting pub bosses to start making switches on their menus.

Earlier this week, the chief executive of Young’s, one of Britain’s largest pub chains, said the company was swapping out chicken for pork, and salmon for trout, because of steep prices.

Marston’s, meanwhile, said it had made its menu offering smaller in an effort to cope.