Abstract: The invention concerns a method and apparatus for monitoring the polar compound content of a liquid bath disposed within a cooking vat to insure the liquid bath remains suitable for human consumption while in use. The invention thus teaches the use of a capacitive probe configured take an initial measurement of the dielectric constant of the liquid bath and thereby define a shutdown criterion. The dielectric constant is then continuously measured during subsequent heating cycles and compared with the initial measurement. A shutdown procedure is triggered when the difference between the initial measurement and subsequent measurements reach a predetermined threshold defined by the shutdown criteria. In this manner, the polar content of the cooking vat is continuously and automatically monitored such that operator supervision is not necessary.