Fatty McFatberg is not the latest addition to a fast food menu. Nor is it a new character on South Park. Fatty McFatberg has the dubious honor of being the largest known fatberg. It was found in London in 2017, all 140 tons and 250 yards of it. That’s the weight of 11 double-deck buses and the length of two and a half footballs fields. In comparison, the “berg” that sank the Titanic was less than 400 feet long.
Fatbergs are rock-like masses of waste found in sewer systems—fats, oils, greases and flushed non-biodegradable solids, from baby wipes to sneakers. Fatbergs cost cities millions of dollars annually to clean up and can cause sewers to overflow and pollute surrounding waters. Denver, Baltimore and New York City are among the US cities with fatbergs.
Ever since she first learned about fatbergs, Laura Lady was determined to find a solution, because she dearly loved fried food and she dearly loved our little planet. She created FryAway, a plant-based, non-toxic powder (a hydrogenated fatty acid) that transforms used cooking oil into a solid that can be tossed out with other household organic waste.
FryAway Varieties
- FryAway Pan Fry contains four pre-measured packets. Use one packet per two cups of oil.
- FryAway Deep Fry contains two pre-measured packets. Use one packet per eight cups of oil.
- FryAway Super Fry is a 7-ounce package that comes with a scoop, so you can use however much you need. One scoop solidifies one cup of oil. The whole Super Fry package solidifies 20 cups of oil.
How to FryAway
Don’t waste oil. It may be reused many times before it needs to be thrown out. Use FryAway once you are sure you will not be using the oil.
- Turn off the heat source and remove the food from the oil.
- Sprinkle FryAway into the hot oil and stir to dissolve completely.
- Allow the oil to cool down and harden. Could be as little as 20 minutes or as much as several hours depending on the amount of oil and the ambient temperature.
- Scoop out the hardened oil and toss it into the trash or compost it. As a bonus, FryAway traps all the gunk left in the pan or deep fryer, and that comes out of the pan or deep fryer with the solidified oil.
Note: For the creative types or “waste not, want not” crowd, you can repurpose the oil for making candles, soap and firestarters.
From Frozen to FryAway
Laura worked on children’s toys for almost 20 years. Finding a solution to disposing of used cooking oil was quite a departure. She remembered her chemistry classes and did relentless research to discover how oil can be solidified. The answer: hydrogenation, the process of combining fat with hydrogen to convert unsaturated fat into saturated fat into a solid state.
Once she had the formula, the rest came naturally from her years of branding, packaging and marketing toys, such as characters from Frozen and The Lion King for Mattel. She also led the global relaunch of their Max Steel line, the most popular action figures in Latin America. For the LEGO Group, she developed and executed strategies for wildly successful products, such as LEGO Friends, LEGO DC Super Hero Girls and LEGOLAND Parks.
Laura’s education was as eclectic as her professional life has been:
- SDA Bocconi School of Management in Italy, MBA-MIEM, Master of Business Administration in International Economics and Management
- International University of Japan, MBA Exchange program
- Louisiana State University, BS in International Trade and Finance
FryAway Mission
FryAway’s mission is to create a planet-friendly frying culture by limiting the waste that ends up in the trash, landfills, drains, septic tanks and sewer pipes.
As a member of “1% for the Planet,” Laura donates 1% of revenues to nonprofits that focus on water conservation.
Shark Tank Air Date: 01/27/2023 – Season 14 – Episode 13
