Do Air Fryers Cause Cancer?

Air fryers have risen in popularity over the past decade, largely due to the convenience and ease they bring to home cooking. Commonly used for cooking small servings of food at home, air fryers offer a healthier alternative to deep frying with large amounts of oil.

Air fryers are countertop kitchen appliances which provide an environment that keeps cooking temperature consistent, while circulating hot air to evenly cook food with little to no oil. Similar to how a convection oven works, a fan inside the air fryer pushes heated air around the food.

The hot air circulating cooks the outer portion of the food first, helping to create a crispy coating resembling that achieved by deep frying. Here, air frying provides a healthier alternative to traditional frying by requiring little to no oil – offering a lower fat and less calorie-dense way to cook food.

There are some concerns surrounding the health risks of cooking food at high temperatures in non-stick baskets. Under normal use however, cooking equipment with non-stick coatings are usually considered food safe nowadays, unless they are damaged, or heated to temperatures above 500°F (260°C). It is generally recommended to avoid cooking with peeling or scratched non-stick coating.

Air fryers alone do not cause cancer. However, when food is heated to high temperatures, harmful by-products including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, acrylamide or heterocyclic aromatic amines are produced. Some of these chemicals are considered possible carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

For example, acrylamide can form at high temperatures during the cooking process, due to a series of chemical reactions (also known as the ‘Maillard reaction’) involving the sugars and amino acids naturally present in food.

Currently, more research is still needed to establish if air frying definitively increases the risk of producing probable carcinogens like acrylamide. To reduce your exposure to acrylamide, avoid over-browning or charring food when cooking, and use lower cooking temperatures, especially when cooking starchy foods.