Chip pans are commonly manufactured through a spinning process, as the metal used is malleable. The lid is typically stamped out by a die in a heavy press.
Health issues
Repeated heating of oil is believed to greatly increase the free radicals in the oil, leading to a higher risk of heart disease.
Oil burns
Injuries, particularly to children, caused by the hot oil from a chip pan falling on them are a common cause of hospital admission in the UK.
Fire hazard
Chip pans are well known for being a fire hazard. In the UK, chip pan fires are the largest cause of fire-related injuries in the home, such that several local fire brigades have offered a "chip pan amnesty", trading old chip pans for a deep fryer. By comparison, electric deep fryers feature circuitry and design features that prevent the oil from being heated to the point of ignition. Boil-overs and splattering can still occur for the usual reasons, but the fire danger is largely eliminated. Chip pans are the most common cause of house fires in the United Kingdom, with around 12,000 chip pan fires every year, 1,100 of them considered serious. These fires result in over 4,600 injuries, and 50 deaths per year. British Fire Brigades frequently issue warnings and advice, urging households to switch to a safer means of cooking chips, and advising that unless the fire is easily contained to leave the fire to the emergency services. They are also a common cause of fire in the Republic of Ireland, accounting for one-fifth of all domestic fires. After two men died in a 2016 fire in Cork City, a coroner recommended that the sale of chip pans be banned and that old chip pans be disposed of. Another coroner noted the danger associated with people heavily inebriated by alcohol, coming home drunk, putting on a chip pan and falling asleep. In 2015, at a halting site in Carrickmines, eleven people were killed in a chip pan fire, the worst fire in Ireland for 34 years. Cooking oil fires burn hotter than other typical combustible liquids, rendering the standard class A & B fire extinguishers ineffective and possibly dangerous. Class F fire extinguishers features a yellow label for identification and use saponification to put out chip pan fires by spraying an alkaline solution which reacts with the fat to make a non-flammablesoap. However, these extinguishers are generally only available in industrial and commercial kitchens. The dangers of oil or fat fires are well known in industrial processes. Attempts to extinguish oil fires with water result in a boilover: an extremely hazardous condition whereby the flaming oil is violently expelled from the container. These fires result from either heating the oil to its autoignition point or by oil splattering onto the heat source.
