French fries, chicken nuggets, onion rings, eggrolls and other fried favorites in restaurants and cafeterias are cooked in oil that gets reused hundreds of times. 

This common practice seems economical. After all, changing oil with every batch – or even every day – would jack up the price of the food unreasonably.

However, there’s a huge hidden health cost of reusing frying oil. And it’s not just that oil contributes to obesity and clogged arteries.

Oil degrades with every reheating. You can see and smell the changes, but what you can’t see is that the high temperatures and exposure to food, water and air cause carcinogenic (cancer-causing) compounds such as acrylamide, free radicals, charcoal and free fatty acids to build up in the reused oil. 

These compounds pose a significant health hazard according to numerous scientific studies. 

The risk of cancer from reused cooking oil affects not only consumers, who ingest approximately 20 percent of the unhealthful absorbed oil, but also kitchen personnel who breathe in these carcinogens as they work.

Israeli food-tech company Beyond Oil has a patented answer to this problem.  

In 2010, Michael Pinhas Or, motivated by his own health issues, embarked on a mission to make fried foods healthier.

Over the next 15 years, he did extensive research and invented a unique powder, comprised of approved food additives, that absorbs harmful components from fried oil, slows the rate of deterioration reactions, and filters the oil so it can be reused while preserving its quality. 

By 2023, his invention was ready for commercial use. 

Transformative moment

Based in North Vancouver, Canada, and Kibbutz Yifat in Israel, the publicly traded company successfully tested the product in both countries.

Its effectiveness was confirmed in a study by Prof. Nissim Garti, former director of the Casali Institute of Applied Chemistry at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Beyond Oil integrates into the existing filtration systems of commercial and industrial fryers, combining the active filtration of the powder with the passive filtration of the filter system. 

The powder is added to the used oil daily, working its magic overnight, and remains on the filter providing an additional layer of microfiltration.

Beyond Oil won the FoodTech Company of the Year award at the 2024 Israeli Restaurateurs Conference.

Now, after completing joint pilot programs with Israeli franchisees of major international food-service companies, Beyond Oil is being adopted in Israel by two global fast-food chain brands.

“This is a transformative moment for Beyond Oil,” said Beyond Oil CEO and cofounder Jonathan Or, son of the inventor.

He said branches using the product saw “substantial improvements in frying oil and food quality, yielding significant health benefits and enhancing key franchise group objectives such as environmental sustainability, employee wellbeing, guest experience, operational efficiency, and reductions in food and labor costs.”

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