What is this god awful smell?!!!

[tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz]

A recent phenomenon and one DH and DD have also noticed (before anyone suggests I'm pregnant 😁) ...

It's a weird smell that I think could be frying oil or sugar but we first noticed it when in London a few month ago and walking along the river past some food vendors. Churros and donut type little huts made out to look all artisan but basically all churning out the same thing. Anyway this nasty sweet smell hit us so we hurried past.

A few weeks ago we smelled it in our town centre - once again a churros vendor. Sorry, nothing against Spanish fried sweet treats I promise.

Them today my lovely dad treated me to my favourite donut, Krispy Kreme Original Glazed. And the disgusting smell hit me as soon as I opened the bag. I did of course eat it and it tasted lovely I just avoided inhaling

So all things that have been around ages but suddenly this sickly smell is so noticeable. My sense of smell seems stronger since my peri symptoms have ramped up but as mentioned DH and DD also seem sensitive to this particular one.

Anyone else? Is the catering trade awash with a new cooking oil or sugar? Or maybe we're just odd!

Is it maybe rapeseed oil - think it's a popular frying oil but it smells like rotten oil filters

Maybe it’s just oil that’s past it? Nothing worse than hot oil which has been heated too often.

Could you be pregnant op?

OP, it could be the cooking oil? Depends how often it cleaned between uses and often food huts use the same oil all day

None of those oils mentioned should smell bad if fresh but definitely any oil overused will smell bad. And, btw, its bad for your health to be ingesting old oil.

Someone at work brought some ring doughnuts in a couple of weeks ago and I had one. It tasted nice but the smell was as you describe, OP. Not very nice at all. A sort of stale fat / burnt sugar smell.

Maybe they are using different cooking oil these days. Ukraine was one of the world's largest exporters of sunflower cooking oil, so perhaps that is having an effect.

Ahh ok so sounds like old and too oft used oil could be a culprit.

Uber driver smells bad

Not noticed it but I do like a decent deep fried, ,NOT baked jam donut, rolled in sugar nom nom nom

To be fair Sainsbury's cheap sugared jam ones are the bomb.

Aww man, I still feel sad at my Disappointing Donut experience today. This country. Going to the dogs(nut).

And is it donut or doughnut?

Nope definitely not pregnant

Could it be that your sense of smell changed after covid? I had covid a number of times with different symptoms buy after the 4th time my smell has never quite been the same and certain perfumes just stink!

Peri menopause definitely heightened my sense of smell. There are many studies that show those seed oils use in cheap cooking oil, are not good for us (especially when heated to high temperatures) so wondering if it's your bodies way of trying to tell you to avoid?!

I'm going with a different cooking oil. Ukraine was our biggest importer and then we have had massive heatwaves affecting crops elsewhere, ie look at olive oil being horrendously priced now.

The worrying thing is that certain oils shouldn't go above a certain temperature (deep fry/roasting) as it is very bad for our health. I can't remember which ones offhand.

I did wonder this too

I am going with it being canola oil that is being used.

And I think this because I cannot bear the smell of it either.

My DC like to make popcorn the old fashioned way. I got canola oil as it was cheaper than sunflower, thinking it can't be too different.

Ds made some popcorn one night after I went to bed. The smell was so strong it woke me up. And it lingered for days.

It's one of those smells that sticks with you imo.

A bunch of people will come along and say it's all nonsense and it doesn't have a smell I am quite sure. Perhaps we have heightened olfactory senses for this, but it's a thing. It's not just you.

See it’s always smelt like this to me - I’ve always been amazed at how people can eat fried stuff. Doughnuts, fried bread, anything in oil. I thought people were better at ignoring it but maybe I am more sensitive to the smell!