Can you place a deep fryer outside a building?

Hello All,

I was wondering if it is within health dept. limits to place a deep fryer outside…like on a secure/ private patio outside my restaurant. I was thinking I could use an outside fryer to pre-fry my wings and other appetizers…and avoid the hood in my kitchen. Just dont know if anyone else out there has tried it?

I think you will have to do a lot of research here as you really are trying to find a loop hole
Two things come to mind right off the bat

  1. I am prohibited from making food off premises and selling it at the restaurant and
    2 My health department inspection does not stay within the confines of my walls…ie dumpster areas and back door area…that being said there are plenty of placed in my area that have smokers and huge bbq pits outside so I would check into it to see how they do it then proceed

Hi Rokiepizzaguy:

You will have to consult your Building Department, Health Department and Fire Marshall on that one.

George Mills

I watched one of those viral videos a while back where a pizza place was nailed b/c they’d taken the rubber fatigue mats off the make line, out the back door onto a blacktopped pad and pressure washed them. The Health Dept. answer in that case anyway was NOTHING leaves the inside and comes back in no matter what. They seemed to say that even a trash can had to have the full liner bag removed INSIDE the store,not dragging the full bin out to the dumpter and then pulling the liner to toss it.

I’d be real suprised if you could get by cooking outside. That said however, a local “sports bar” in my locale routinely char-grills their steaks and chops outside on a gas grill on the weekends and it doesn’t seem to bother folks.

i think this really has to do with your local area. There are things that you can get away with in certain areas that health dept. and fire marshals might let you get away with somewhere else.

Though I will say I have seen this done with fish fries and other events. So it is possible to accomplish. Another thing might be to build a partial building out to where you want the fryers? just athought

I am GUESSING that it has to be “inside”. Of course, inside is the operative word. BBQ pits tend to be under a roof and have makeshift walls made of a screening material. If you can protect from weather (coming down, not necessarily wind) and control pests (bugs), you might be able to get away with it. Once it’s “indoors” like that, they’ll probably require a hood and fire suppression system, if your town is anything like mine.