How often these injuries happen
OSHA recorded 295 severe cases involving hot cooking oil over the last decade. Thermal burns are the primary injury type, often resulting in significant tissue damage that requires immediate hospitalization and long-term medical care.
The severity of these burns often leads to extended recovery periods and permanent scarring.
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Check My BenefitsHow these injuries happen
Most injuries occur through direct contact with hot objects or substances, which accounts for 78% of all reported incidents. You are often hurt when oil splashes during disposal, when fryers are improperly secured or tip over, or when equipment gaskets fail under pressure, spraying heated liquids onto your skin.
| Cause | Incidents | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Contact with hot objects or substances | 231 |
| 2 | Exposure to harmful substances— unspecified | 14 |
| 3 | Struck by falling object | 11 |
| 4 | Inhalation of harmful substance | 8 |
| 5 | Exposure to harmful substance through exposed tissue | 6 |
| 6 | Fire— small-scale, limited | 6 |
| 7 | Flash fire | 3 |
| 8 | Injured by object handled by person | 2 |
Where injuries happen most
Accommodation and food services account for 38% of these injuries, as high-volume kitchens rely on constant use of deep fryers and large-scale oil filtration systems. Manufacturing facilities also see high rates of injury when you handle heated food products or maintain industrial filtration equipment that can fail unexpectedly.
Real cases like yours
Common patterns in these incidents include equipment instability, inadequate protective gear, and failures in standard operating procedures during oil disposal or filtration. If your injury resulted from a similar equipment failure or a lack of proper safety training, an attorney can help you review the specifics of your incident to determine your legal options.
| Year | State | Industry | Incident summary | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | FL | Health Care | "An employee went outside to dispose of oil from a cooking pot into a large dumpster. When dumping the hot oil, it splashed back and burned her right hand. The employee was hospitalized." | |
| 2025 | SD | Accommodation & Food Services | "An employee was working to change the cooking oil in a 1-gallon countertop fryer. The fryer was held in place by three C-clamps. When two of the clamps were removed, the fryer fell and the hot oil contacted the employee from the waist down. The employee sustained burns to their lower body." | |
| 2025 | NE | Manufacturing | "An employee was bringing a filter online. When the employee opened a valve to initiate flow through the filter, the gasket on the filter housing failed, spraying a water/erythritol mixture (heated to about 175 degrees Fahrenheit) toward the employee. The employee moved back quickly and their chemical suit caught on something, causing it to open. The mixture burned the employee's abdomen and left arm." | |
| 2025 | TX | Construction | "A technician was pushing a mobile filtration unit (MFU) with cooking oil up the ramp of a van when he slipped. The machine shifted and hot cooking oil spilled on the employee and got inside his shoes. The employee sustained third-degree burns to both feet." | |
| 2025 | WV | Accommodation & Food Services | "An employee was cooking chicken when grease splashed on her face. She was hospitalized with burns to her face above her lip and below her right eyebrow." | |
| 2025 | WI | Manufacturing | "As an employee was opening an infeed valve. Hot tallow oil in the line above fell back down the pipe and came out of an open pressure relief valve, striking the employee on the thighs. The employee was hospitalized with second-degree burns to his thigh. Another employee sustained burns to their back but they were not hospitalized." | |
| 2025 | FL | Manufacturing | "An employee was changing a strainer when 180- to 190-degree sugar solution splashed from an open valve onto the employee, who suffered burns." | |
| 2025 | GA | Accommodation & Food Services | "An employee was cleaning around a fryer when their hand contacted hot grease/shortening from the fryer. The employee sustained burns to their hand." | |
| 2025 | NJ | Accommodation & Food Services | "An employee was cleaning the kitchen for closing and sustained burns to their face and body after a fryer tipped over and hot oil splashed onto the employee. " | |
| 2025 | TX | Health Care | "An employee was transferring a patient when they experienced an allergic reaction to peanuts and peanut shells in the patient's bedsheets." |
Source: OSHA Severe Injury Reports. Narratives are verbatim from filings; identifying details may have been redacted by OSHA.