Aluminum foil is a super useful invention: it can protect your lasagna or baked goods in the oven or catch drippings so you don’t have to clean up. But it doesn’t work well with all appliances — microwaves and aluminum foil are notoriously bad partners. In an air fryer however — which is just as handy for quickly cooking or reheating food — that same foil is fairly safe to use (with a few minor caveats). The reason lies in the way each appliance works: In short they’re two very different technologies.
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 AirfryDaily | 2023-05-24 17:45:07 |  180,029 Views |
Can you use aluminum foil in the Airfryer? (FIRE HAZARD!)
Let’s start with microwaves. Generally speaking if you microwave a fork or some aluminum foil in it it will spark and catch fire. Don’t try this at home: there are plenty of YouTube videos demonstrating this if you want to see for yourself. This is due to the electromagnetic waves that a microwave uses to heat food. These waves penetrate the food and heat it but when they encounter thin metals – like foil or a fork – the waves cause electrons in the metal to pile up creating an electric field in that area. This is especially true with metals with folds and points: aluminum foil has a lot of them so all those pent-up electrons can spark making things dangerous; flatter pieces of metal generally won’t have as intense a reaction. Thicker metals can handle those waves better which is why metal microwave walls don’t spark when hit by those energy waves.
Air fryers are a newer invention than microwaves in the way they work. Their name is a bit misleading as these appliances aren’t actually deep fryers at all; they work more like a mini oven. They’re more like convection ovens cooking food by blowing hot air around it although the small chamber size of most air fryers makes them much faster than a regular oven. The perforated basket in an air fryer means that air can reach your food from all sides which is why they’re so good at crisping up everything from potatoes to green beans. However all that hot air moving around makes them less suitable for liquids which they’re more likely to squirt around.
The hot air that an air fryer uses doesn’t cause electrons in aluminum foil to move the same way a microwave does with its electromagnetic waves. Putting aluminum foil in an air fryer is essentially the same as putting aluminum foil in your convection oven. Foil can actually be helpful in keeping your air fryer clean for example if you’re cooking foods that can stick to the basket or breaded foods that can release crumbs. That said you should check your air fryer’s manual to see if there are any safety tips for using foil in it.
