Internet Culture

‘Welp I’m not gonna eat fast food anymore’: Fast-food worker changes deep-fryer oil in viral TikTok

‘If i was paid the same as them, I would never change the oil.’

Photo of Clara Wang

Clara Wang

Oil being changed in a fryer.

A fast-food worker showed how she changes the oil at her restaurant and sparked a debate over how dirty the oil appears to be in fast-food restaurants.

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@fryer.friend’s Dec. 12 TikTok of her changing the deep-fryer oil went viral, with over 6.7 million views and 661,600 likes to date.

The video walks viewers through how she changes the oil in the deep-fryer at her fast-food restaurant. She first takes a tool and sticks it in the visibly brown pool of oil.

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“What I’m looking for is the visibility on that little indentation,” @fryer.friend says. “To be honest they’re both pretty bad.”

After she confirms the oil is dirty, she drains the oil and scrapes out the black gunk on the bottom. There is a significant amount of burnt black grease collected on the bottom of the fryer, which she wipes down before replacing the fryer basket and filling it up with new oil.

While @fryer.friend appears to be just doing her job, the dirty fryer caused a rift in the comment section. Some of the 3,365 comments complain about how she didn’t totally clean out the gunk.

“You obviously don’t know what you’re doing,” @powerwashflorida alleged.

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“That fryer needs some maintenance not just cleaning,” @jm1191 claimed.

@fryer.friend addressed these comments in a series of follow-up videos in which she breaks down the cleaning process further.

https://www.tiktok.com/@fryer.friend/video/7037903485207088430
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Others pointed out how that she’s doing her best as a minimum-wage employee.

“Y’all are literally shitting on this girl who is doing the best she can with the resources provided,” @morte_aeternax said.

“Give fast food workers a break. if i was paid the same as them i would never change the oil. ya gonna eat 9yr old oil from me,” another said.

It is unclear where @fryer.friend works.

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The Daily Dot reached out to @fryer.friend for comment.

Editor’s note: Due to a technical error, our original message to this TikToker may not have been delivered.


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