How healthy is an air fryer? What you should know before buying one

I recently bought an air fryer because I wanted crispy food without the health-related guilt that usually comes with deep-fried snacks. As someone who hates standing in the kitchen waiting for food to cook, it also sounded like a simple enough solution. I can put the food in the basket, add little or no oil depending on what I’m making, set the temperature and let it cook.

Using less oil obviously sounds healthier on paper, but an air fryer isn’t a magic box that turns everything you put inside healthy, food or no. And that got me thinking… What actually changes when you cook the same food in an air fryer instead of traditional deep frying? And how much difference does using less oil really make? I decided to dig into it, and here’s what I found. Of course, this article isn’t health advice of any sort, and you should read and explore more clinical data before taking the plunge.

What actually happens inside an air fryer?

Despite the name, an air fryer doesn’t really fry food. It uses a heating element and a fan to circulate hot air around the food. The basket has holes that let the air move around the food, helping the surface brown and crisp. In that sense, an air fryer is closer to a small convection oven than a deep fryer.

The airflow is also why you can’t just fill the basket to the top and expect the same result. I have noticed this with potato wedges and fries. When there is some space between them, they brown much better. Pack the basket too tightly and some pieces stay softer than others.

The real health advantage is the oil

Deep frying means the food is surrounded by hot oil while it cooks. With an air fryer, many foods need only a small amount of oil, while some don’t need any additional oil at all. According to a 2024 Cleveland Clinic report, air frying can reduce calories from added fat compared with deep frying because considerably less oil is used.

Also read: Why have air fryers become so popular in India?

I notice this most when I’m making something like potato wedges. I can lightly coat them with oil, put them in the basket and leave them to cook. With deep frying, I’d need a whole pan of oil for the same job, and then I’d have to deal with the leftover oil afterwards.

There is a catch, though. The air fryer isn’t removing the fat that’s already in the food. Frozen fries, nuggets and packaged snacks can contain plenty of oil and fat before they even go into the basket. The difference is mainly in how much additional oil you need during cooking.

The basket coating is worth checking too

There is another part of an air fryer that doesn’t get much attention: the surface your food is actually sitting on. Many air fryers use non-stick coatings, with PTFE being one common option. Other models use ceramic coatings or stainless-steel cooking surfaces. Philips, for example, says most of its air-fryer pans, baskets and meshes use a PTFE coating, while some meshes in its 7000 Series use ceramic coating.

PTFE gets questioned because it belongs to the broader PFAS family. But that doesn’t mean a PTFE-coated air fryer is automatically unsafe. Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment says PTFE-coated cookware does not pose a health concern when used as intended, while warning against severe overheating.

Therefore, I would suggest you not pick a ceramic-coated air fryer just because the word “ceramic” sounds healthier. I’d first check whether the manufacturer clearly says what coating is being used and what temperature limits apply.

Also read: Best air fryers under Rs 5000 in India for efficient cooking

If you specifically want to avoid PTFE or PFAS, look for a product that explicitly says PTFE-free or PFAS-free. Also, don’t confuse PFOA-free with PTFE-free, they are not the same thing.

I’d also pay attention to how the coating holds up: If it starts peeling or gets badly scratched, that’s when I’d consider replacing the basket rather than continuing to use it.

What happens when you cook at high temperatures?

It’s widely known that air fryers need fairly high temperatures to get food browned and crispy, which brings acrylamide into the picture. The US Food and Drug Administration says acrylamide can form when foods containing certain sugars and the amino acid asparagine are cooked at high temperatures. Potatoes are one of the foods where this is relevant.

But interestingly, air frying doesn’t necessarily mean more acrylamide. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Food Science found about 90% less acrylamide in air-fried potatoes than in conventionally deep-fried potatoes under the conditions tested.

The amount of acrylamide still depends on the food, temperature, cooking time and how dark you let it get. The FDA recommends aiming for a golden-yellow colour rather than heavily browning potatoes.

This is where the appliance’s temperature control actually matters. You have more control over how hot and how long you cook the food, instead of simply putting it into a pan of hot oil and judging it by eye.

So, is air frying actually healthier?

Compared with deep frying, generally yes. The biggest advantage is that an air fryer can give you a crispy result while using considerably less added oil. That can mean less fat and fewer calories coming from the cooking process.

But I wouldn’t take that to mean that everything cooked in an air fryer is healthy. The food itself still matters. Air-fried vegetables are obviously a different proposition from air-fried frozen nuggets or fries, even if both use the same appliance.

For me, the air fryer makes more sense as a different and often less-oily way of cooking, rather than a “healthy food” machine. It lets me skip the pan full of oil, makes small portions easier to cook and still gives me the crispy texture I wanted in the first place.

That’s probably the most honest way to look at it: the air fryer can make the cooking method healthier, but it can’t make the food healthy by itself.

Also read: Wozoyo Pure Air PA6 review: How good is this new entrant?