Table of Contents
- Why do my eyes burn after frying food
- Reasons for Eye burning after Frying
- Tips to Avoid Eyes burning after frying
- Final thoughts
Why do my eyes burn after frying food
Frying is the most used cooking technique to make food items crispy and delicious. It also leaves a characteristic aroma that makes you head towards the kitchen to have a bite of your favorite snack.
However, along with the pleasant smell, other side effects may cause discomfort or irritation to many people.
The most complained query is why my eyes burn after frying food? This is typically due to the release and transmission of grease, food salt, spices, and even onion vapors that irritate the eyes.
Eye burning while and after frying is a common problem most encountered by inexperienced and amateur cooks. In this article, we’ll find out the reasons behind the burning of eyes and what you could do to avoid them.
Reasons for Eye burning after Frying
There are several reasons why one may feel their eyes burning after frying some food. Some of these include:
Hot grease:
Oil and grease splatter while cooking; if you aren’t watchful, it may splash into your eyes. If you are cooking with grease or very hot oil, this may cause your eyes to feel uncomfortable. Oil may splash onto your eye, which might be very painful and irritating.
Exposure to fumes:
When you fry a particular food, it may release some toxic fumes due to the oil. Breathing in these fumes through your nose can make your eyes burn and water. It is thus advisable not to breathe in the fumes when frying some specific food items.
Fumes from other foods:
When you are cooking different types of food simultaneously, for example, meat and vegetables, you might get exposed to fumes from both sides, which could irritate your eyes. This is more applicable if they have been fried together.
Chemical exposure:
Some compounds like ammonia, chlorine, and other cleaning supplies expose you to harmful chemicals that can burn the eyes if they come into contact with them. If you try breathing in simultaneously or accidentally swallow some of this water, it could be even more harmful and cause serious problems.
Sure French fries usually contain chemicals that can irritate your eyes after being fried. These chemicals include solanine and chaconine.
Atmospheric contaminants:
Sometimes the environment in which the heating is done can cause your eyes to burn. If you do not have proper ventilation or clean air, this might cause discomfort. It could also come from cigarette smoke, dust particles, and other aerosols floating around your house. So it’s best to cook in a well-ventilated place so that this doesn’t happen.
Frying at high Temperatures:
Frying is only dangerous if the oil reaches very high temperatures; otherwise, there’s no real danger to your eyes or skin. But let us not deceive ourselves: frying at extremely high temperatures (at which point is like deep-frying) is always uncomfortable and dangerous.
Salt and Spice Particles:
Some people find that their eyes sting after frying food. This may be due to the salt or spices they have added to the food, or even onion vapor if it has drifted into their eyes from above the cooking pot.
Bad quality pans:
Another possibility is that you are not using good-quality nonstick saucepans for cooking, or the oil has been overheated because it has been on the heat for too long. If this happens, you will feel an uncomfortable burning sensation in your skin and/or eyes.
Lack of air:
When deep-frying, it is recommended to have good ventilation for the fumes created when frying. This can be achieved by using an open window if one is close enough, opening a window or door somewhere near the kitchen, or using a good-quality air freshener. If you continue to have problems, it might also be an idea to use a fan with your open window if there isn’t one already; fans prevent grease and steam from forming in the room and point it out of the window.
No food:
If you don’t fry anything for a while, like after having fried some chicken, your eyes may also feel uncomfortable and burn. This is because there are no longer any oil fumes coming off the pan; this used to cause them discomfort earlier on, but they got used to it. Your body will now react by causing you pain as it thinks this lack of fumes means something is wrong.
Frying certain food items together:
Some people find it best not to have certain types of fried food items together, as this can cause burning eyes over time.
Some people say that salt and vinegar chips shouldn’t be eaten after french fries or other chips because the vinegar can irritate your eyes if you are cooking with oil that is too hot at the same time. When you have these cooked in too hot oil, it can burn your skin and eyes.
This happens because the chemicals inside both foodstuffs will react when exposed to the oil ( (which is why this reaction sometimes occurs when frying potatoes). These chemicals may even explode due to excess heat. This can be seen when one fries an alkali (like sodium bicarbonate) and acid together; this will cause a lot of heat to build up, resulting in fuming.
Tips to Avoid Eyes burning after frying
If you want to avoid burning your eyes while frying food, some tips can help.
Big and Deep pans
If you use a saucepan for deep-frying, make sure its size is big enough so the oil doesn’t spatter. If it isn’t, this may happen and could hurt your skin or burn your eyes. If you don’t have an appropriate saucepan for deep-frying, then it’s best to use a deep-frying basket that can be bought from most supermarkets.
They usually come with cool-touch handles, pour spouts for easy draining, and even splatter guards. If you don’t want to spend a lot, there are also cheap pans that work just as well, but they will lack these extra features that most people find helpful when cooking with oil at excessively high temperatures.
Do not fry certain food items together
Some people find it best not to have certain types of fried food items together, as this can cause burning eyes over time. For instance, some people say that salt and vinegar chips shouldn’t be eaten after French fries or other chips because the vinegar can irritate your eyes if you are cooking with oil that is too hot at the same time.
When you have these cooked in too hot oil, it can burn your skin and eyes. This happens because the chemicals inside both foodstuffs will react when exposed to the oil ( (which is why this reaction sometimes occurs when frying potatoes). These chemicals may even explode due to excess heat. This can be seen when one fries both an alkali (like sodium bicarbonate) and acid together;
Chilling the eyes with cucumber slices
You can place a few cucumber slices on your eyes to avoid these problems and relax for a few minutes. Cucumber contains compounds (including ascorbic acid and caffeic acid) that reduce inflammation and cool the eyes; it also has minerals like magnesium which relaxes the muscles around the eye area and reduces strain.
Other things can help prevent burning after frying, such as not leaving hot oil unattended ( (which is common sense), taking care when heating oil in pans or kettles, and making sure there aren’t any flammable items nearby, etc.
Final thoughts
The bottom line is that frying food can cause your eyes to burn in the short term over time just by doing it occasionally. However, if you do it often, this will likely happen more often and can become a bigger problem. If you fry food regularly, it’s best to wear goggles when cooking so nothing gets in your eyes and causes burning or irritation. Also, you need to know some home remedies for burning eyes to get instant relief.
