Cooking is the process that includes frying, sautéing, flash frying, cooking food containing gravy, and roasting. Without definite historical evidence, one has to assume that roasting of food such as meat came first. Roasting of vegetables and grains came next. Frying must have come much later after man invented wild oilseeds and oil palm and learnt to control fire and invented pots to fry food in. The historians and the archeologists have theories and beliefs that are extensive. It is, however, believed by the archeologists that controlled fire became known to man between 400 000 and 750 000 BC.

Frying of food is an old and traditional means to prepare food quickly and enjoy the preparation for culinary delight. The frying technique has improved over the years and has evolved from kitchen frying to large-scale industrial frying. Coated products, par-fried products with or without seasoning, have become popular across the world. The fried products are packaged and distributed for sale. Innovation of the packaging technology has enabled the fried food industry to distribute the products that maintain freshness over an extended period.