Cooking Oil

An absolute must in some dishes but if we want to avoid another Fatberg what can we do to reduce, re-use and recycle?

Reduce

• Not all methods of cooking use oil, try alternatives to frying – grill, bake, steam, poach or slow cook instead
• Measure out how much you use rather than pouring liberally into the pan, some foods release fat when they cook so start by adding a small amount and only add more if you need to
• Use low-fat sprays or oil rather than butter

Reuse

• Depends on what you’re cooking and how much, but for some dishes you can keep the oil in the pan and cook something else in the same oil (don’t use the same oil to cook meat then make a vegetarian meal though)
• If you have lard or suet you could make fat balls for birds, don’t use cooking oil though as it can coat bird feathers

Recycle

Find your nearest cooking oil recycling location, if there isn’t one close by you could set one up! The Unblocking the community website has lots of useful information.

Safe disposal

• Never put fat down the sink. Pour extra fat in to a solid container e.g. a tin can or glass jar and continue filling it until full, then seal it and put it in with your rubbish. You can freeze it and put it in your bin bag the night before collection to help stop foxes smells it and ripping open bags to find it
• Use kitchen roll to wipe the pan before washing to soak up any that won’t pour out