Journal of Food Engineering 79 (2007) 1474–1482

www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Physical properties of pre-treated potato chips

a,*
Franco Pedreschi , Pedro Moyano b, Natalie Santis b, Romina Pedreschi c

a
Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnologı́a de Alimentos, Facultad Tecnológica, Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH),
Av. Ecuador 3769, Santiago, Chile
b
Departamento de Ingenierı́a Quı́mica, Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH), P.O. Box 10233, Santiago, Chile
c
Departament Biosystems – Division MeBioS, Katholiek Universiteit Leuven, Willem de Croylaan 42, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

Received 21 February 2006; received in revised form 5 April 2006; accepted 10 April 2006
Available online 5 May 2006

Abstract

The objective of this research was to study some physical properties of pre-treated potato slices such as moisture and oil content,
texture and color during frying at 120, 140, 160 and 180 C. Slices (Desiree variety, diameter: 30 mm, width: 2.0 mm) blanched in hot
water at 85 C for 3.5 min were considered as the control. NaCl soaked chips were previously blanched as indicated before and immersed
in a 3% NaCl solution for 5 min at 200 rpm of agitation and 25 C. The moisture loss profiles were similar for chips pre-treated in the two
ways during frying. Oil uptake increased up to 20% as the frying temperature decreased; soaking of blanched chips in the NaCl solution
decreased slightly the oil absorption in 7%. Color values in L*a*b* units were recorded at different sampling times during frying at the
four mentioned temperatures using the total color difference (DE) and a Minolta colorimeter. Soaking of blanched slices in the NaCl
solution producer paler chips after chips diminishing the final values of DE in 6%, 16%, 9% and 23 % with respect to those corresponding
to control chips after frying. Textural changes in fried potato slices were followed by the parameter maximum force (MF). Soaking in
NaCl of blanched chips increased its crispness after frying at 120, 140, 160 and 180 C in 15%, 13%, 11% and 11%, respectively.
 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Potato chips; Frying; color; NaCl soaking; Blanching; Texture; Oil absorption; Water content

1. Introduction
In 2001 about 57% of the potato US crop was processed
producing 11,300 million kg of processed potatoes, of which
21.6% was made chips. The worldwide trade in 2001 shows
that 7.4 · 107 kg of potato chips was exported with a value
of 165 million dollars (Economic Research Service, 2004).
Potato chips are very thin pieces (1.27–1.78 mm thick)
of sliced raw potatoes that are fried to a final oil content
of 33–38 g/100 g (wet basis) (Moreira, Castell-Perez, &
Barrufet, 1999).
Deep-fat frying is a widely used food process, which con-
sists basically of immersion of food pieces in hot vegetable
oil. The high temperature causes partial evaporation of the
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +56 9359 1679/2474 8108; fax: +562 682
3536.
E-mail address: fpedresc@lauca.usach.cl (F. Pedreschi).
water, which moves away from the food and through
the surrounding oil, and a certain amount of oil is absorbed
by the food. Frying is often selected as a method for
creating unique flavors and texture in processed foods that
improve their overall palatability. The high temperature
of the frying fat, typically leads to the appreciated textural
characteristics of fried foods, and besides heating of
reducing sugars effects a complex group of reactions,
termed caramelization, leading to browning development
(Márquez & Añón, 1986). This process involves simulta-
neous heat and mass transfer (Hubbard & Farkas, 1999).
In the potato chip process, raw potatoes are washed,
peeled, sorted, and cut into slices. Some potato processing
plants use blanching in hot water and drying with warm air
until to reach a moisture content of 60% (wet basis) prior
to frying. After this, potato slices are usually fried in con-
tinuous fryers with hot oil (170–190 C), where they remain
until the moisture level is less than 2% of the total weight.

0260-8774/$ - see front matter  2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2006.04.029
 F. Pedreschi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 79 (2007) 1474–1482
Finally, potato chips are salted, cooled in ambient air and
packaged. The blanching step improves the color and tex-
ture, and could reduce the oil uptake by gelatinization of
the surface starch (Califano & Calvelo, 1987). Air dehydra-
tion leads to a lower moisture content which also reduce oil
absorption (Talburt, Weaver, Reeve, & Kueneman, 1987).
The water loss mechanism during frying is complex and
the transport by molecular diffusion, capillary and pressure
driven flow should be accounted (Ni & Datta, 1999). How-
ever modeling at different levels of complexity has been
reported. Moisture content of potato slices has been fitted
with frying time, and the square root of frying time
(Gamble, Rice, & Selman, 1987). A more complex approach
tested two models: one controlled by heat transfer and the
other one by diffusivity of water in the tissue (Ashkenazi,
Mizrahi, & Berk, 1984). A first-order kinetic model has been
considered, in which the rate of moisture loss was propor-
tional to the moisture content (Gupta, Shivhare, & Bawa,
2000; Krokida, Oreopolou, Maroulis, & Marinos-Kouris,
2001). In more complex models, the crust and the core have
been treated as two regions separated by a moving bound-
ary and included pressure driven flow in the crust region
(Farkas, Singh, & Rumsey, 1996). Also, liquid water trans-
port has been considered resulting from convective flow and
from capillary flow and vapor by convective flow and diffu-
sion (Gamble et al., 1987). Fitting moisture content of
potato slices with frying time and square root of frying time
has also been done (Gamble et al., 1987). A more complex
approach tried two models: one controlled by heat transfer
and the other one by diffusivity of water in the tissue (Ash-
kenazi et al., 1984). The crust and the core have been treated
as two regions separated by a moving boundary and
included pressure driven flow in the crust region (Farkas
et al., 1996; Krokida et al., 2001). Also a multiphase porous
media model has been developed to predict the moisture
migration, oil uptake and energy transport in a potato slab;
in this model liquid water transport has been considered
resulting from convective flow and from capillary flow
and vapor by convective flow and diffusion (Ni & Datta,
1999). However, with different approaches, the Fick’s law
of diffusion has been extensively used to describe the
water loss kinetics during frying (Ateba & Mittal, 1994;
Chen & Moreira, 1997; Kozempel, Tomasula, & Craig,
1991; Mittal & Zhang, 2000; Pedreschi, Moyano, Hernán-
dez, & Figueroa, 2005; Rice & Gamble, 1989; Williams &
Mittal, 1999). Fick’s law of diffusion which provides a sim-
plified picture of the water loss during frying can be written
as follow:
om o2 m
¼ Deff 2
ot ox
where Deff = effective diffusion coefficient (m2 s1); m =
moisture content at time t in dry basis; t = time (s) and
x = position in the sample where the moisture content is
m. This equation has been solved for an infinite slab of 2l
of thickness considering the following conditions (Crank,
1995): (i) the solid is homogeneous and their dimensions
1475
remain constant during time; (ii) solid initial distribution
is uniform; (iii) water concentrations in the interfaces equal
the equilibrium humidity and remains constant during time
and it is assumed such as zero.
For one-dimensional transport the solution of Eq. (1) is
( " ! #)
mt  me 8 X 1 2
1 ð2n þ 1Þ p2 Deff
¼ exp  t
m0  me p2 n¼1 ð2n þ 1Þ2 4 l2
ð2Þ
where l = half thickness of the slice; mt = moisture content
at time t in dry basis; m0 = initial moisture content in dry
basis; me = equilibrium moisture content in dry basis;
t = frying time and Deff = effective moisture diffusion coef-
ficient, assumed a constant value during the frying process.
It is reasonably to assume that the moisture content is neg-
ligible when equilibrium is reached in the frying process, so
me = 0 in Eq. (2).
However in order to not oversimplify the transport pro-
cess, Moyano and Berna (2002) considered that using a
variable effective diffusion coefficient in Fick’s law would
account for the change of physical properties of the mate-
rial during frying. This effective diffusion as a function of
time has been proposed as
 b
D0
Deff ¼ D0 1 þ 2 t ð3Þ
l
where D0 is the effective diffusivity at time = 0, and b is a
dimensionless parameter (Alvarez & Legues, 1986). For
the case of slab geometry this model results:
mt  me
m0  me
( " " 1þb #!#)
8 X
1
1 ð2n þ 1Þ2 p2 D0 t
¼ 2 exp  1þ 2
p n¼1 ð2n þ 1Þ2 4ð1 þ bÞ l
ð4Þ
Potato chips contain significant amount of fat, reaching in
many cases 1/3 of the total food product by weight (Mell-
ema, 2003). This ensures a high level of satiety, but can also
pose a risk. Especially over the last decade it has been rec-
ognized the desirability of reducing fat content of deep
fried products. Therefore, consumer trends are moving to-
ward healthier foods and low fat products, creating the
need to develop technologies to reduce the amount of oil
in the final fried products (Bouchon, Aguilera, & Pyle,
2003).
Garayo and Moreira (2002) stated that in atmospheric
frying oil transfer mechanism can be divided in two peri-
ð1Þ
ods: frying and cooling. During frying and after the liquid
water reaches the boiling point, the pores of the potato chip
are filled out with water vapor and air with a negligible
capillary pressure and with no driving force for oil to flow
into the pores. During cooling the pressure inside the pores
changes arising a pressure difference between the surface
and the pores which creates a driving force for the oil
1476 F. Pedreschi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 79 (2007) 1474–1482
and air to penetrate the pores. Kozempel et al. (1991)
applied a zero-order model to calculate oil absorption
claiming that this model predict with sufficient accuracy
the concentration of oil in French fries, with an error in
the prediction of 0.014 g oil/g potato (dry basis). Krokida
et al. (2001) tried a first-order model for oil uptake in
potato strips and found an acceptable accuracy (9–13%)
between calculated and experimental values. Ni and Datta
(1999) developed a multiphase porous media model in
which considered that oil transport results from capillarity
flow due to the gradient of capillarity force and convective
flow. The set of resulting equations was solved by means of
a finite difference method and a simulation for a slab of
potato showed that the rate of oil uptake is initially higher
and then slows down, becoming linear with time.
There is evidence that oil is mostly absorbed after frying
during the cooling period of the chips (Aguilera & Gloria-
Hernández, 2000; Bouchon et al., 2003; Ufheil & Escher,
1996). Bouchon et al. (2003) explained that three different
oil fractions can be identified as a consequence of the differ-
ent absorption mechanisms in fried potato cylinders, that is:
(i) structural oil (STO), which represents the oil absorbed
during frying, (ii) penetrated surface oil (PSO), which repre-
sents the oil suctioned into the food during cooling after
removal from the fryer, and (iii) surface oil (SO), which is
the oil that remains on the surface. These authors showed
that a small amount of oil penetrates during frying because
most of the oil was picked up at the end of the process, sug-
gesting that oil uptake and water removal are not synchro-
nous phenomena.
In recent years, several procedures have been proposed
to reduce the amount of absorbed oil in fried potatoes.
It has been added fructose to a restructured potato prod-
uct that resulted in a change of the surface properties,
with a reduction of absorbed oil after frying (Rubnov &
Saguy, 1997). Soaking of potato strips in NaCl solutions
could reduce oil uptake in 15% in French fries after fry-
ing (Bunger, Moyano, & Rioseco, 2003; Moyano & Berna,
2002). Pre-drying of potatoes is a common way to reduce
fat uptake in the final fried product (Lamberg, Hallstrom,
& Olsson, 1990; Pedreschi & Moyano, 2005a). Vacuum
frying may be also an option for fried potatoes with low
oil content and the desired texture and flavor characteris-
tics (Garayo & Moreira, 2002). Since the properties of
the surface of the potatoes are most important for fat
uptake, the application of a proper coating is a promising
route to reduce oil content (Mellema, 2003). There are
many options available to reduce fat uptake by applica-
tion of coatings or batters. For instance, it has been used
gellam gum to coat samples so that the resulting film
reduced the oil uptake during frying (Williams & Mittal,
1999).
In the present study, one empirical model was used to
describe oil uptake during frying:
Oeq Kt
O¼ ð5Þ
1 þ Kt
where O is the oil content at time t (dry basis, oil free); Oeq
is the oil content at equilibrium (or maximum content) (dry
basis, oil free) at t = 1; t is the frying time; K represents
the specific rate of uptake for this model. For short times
this model has a linear behavior with time, while for long
times becomes time independent.
Color of potato chips is an extremely important crite-
rion for the potato processing industry and it is strictly
related to consumer perception (Scanlon, Roller, Mazza,
& Pritchard, 1994). Fried potato color is the result of the
Maillard reaction that depends on the content of reducing
sugars and amino acids or proteins at the surface, and the
temperature and time of frying (Márquez & Añón, 1986).
Color of fried potatoes has been measured usually in units
L*a*b* using either a colorimeter or specific data acquisi-
tion and image processing systems. L* is the luminance
or lightness component, which ranges from 0 to 100, and
parameters a* (from green to red) and b* (from blue to yel-
low) are the two chromatic components, which range from
120 to 120 (Papadakis, Abdul-Malek, Kamdem, & Yam,
2000). In the L*a*b* space, the color perception is uniform
which means that the Euclidean distance between two col-
ors corresponds approximately to the color difference per-
ceived by the human eye (Hunt, 1991).
Color development only begins when sufficient amount
of drying has occurred in potato slices and depends also
on the drying rate and the heat transfer coefficient during
the different stages of frying. At temperatures up to 60 C,
browning is normally a zero-order reaction. Since deep-fat
frying process usually has a very short period with a surface
temperature lower than 60 C, a first-order kinetic analysis
for browning during frying is expected. Moyano, Rı́oseco,
and Gonzaléz (2002) studied the kinetics of crust browning
during deep-fat frying of potato strips by using the dynamic
method and considering a first-order rate equation.
Márquez and Añón (1986) used a first-order reaction
approach to study the color development in fried potatoes.
Ateba and Mittal (1994) calculated first-order kinetic
parameters for browning during the frying of meat balls.
Krokida et al. (2001) assumed that the color parameters
L*, a* and b* followed a first-order kinetics to determine
the rate of color changes during frying of potato strips.
Pedreschi, Moyano, Kaack, and Granby (2005) assumed
that the color parameter a* followed a first-order kinetics
to determine the rate of color changes during frying of
potato and find a good correlation between the acrylamide
content of the chips and their color. Since color develop-
ment is a surface phenomena, the surface potato slice
temperature, Ts, should be considered. Ts may be greater
than the central temperature, depending on the potato
thickness and also the coloring rate is moisture dependent
(Moyano et al., 2002).
Texture of fried potatoes could be described in terms of
crispness. A recommended assay to study the texture of
fried potatoes is the puncture test, which measures the force
required to insert a punch into a food (Bourne, 2002).
Bourne, Moyer, and Hand (1966) performed objective
 F. Pedreschi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 79 (2007) 1474–1482
measurements of potato chip texture, in terms of resistance
to bending. Segnini, Dejmek, and Öste (1999) developed a
puncture test with a three-point support for potato chips.
Pedreschi, Aguilera, and Pyle (2001) developed a puncture
test to measure in situ the texture development in French
fries during frying using representative parameters extracted
from the characteristic force–distance curves at different
times. Frying of potato strips showed an initial stage in
which the whole tissue softened, the core became cooked
and crust formation starts, and a later stage in which the
crust developed and hardened progressively. Higher frying
temperatures accelerated cooking of the core and hardening
of the crust, resulting in French fries with harder crusts. A
finished French fry became a composite structure made of
a hard crust region and a soft core region. Normalized max-
imum force (MF*) parameter was used to study texture
development during the frying of potato slices (Pedreschi
& Moyano, 2005b):
ðMF Þ ¼ eks t þ k h  t2 ð6Þ
where MF* = normalized maximum force; ks = kinetic
constant for softening of potato tissue (min1); kh = kinetic
constant for the crust hardening process (min2) and t =
frying time. MF* is the value of the maximum force
(MF) at any time divided by the value of MF at time zero.
The objective of this research was to study the effect of
only blanching and, blanching plus NaCl impregnation
on the physical properties of the potato chips resulting
after frying. Physical properties such as the water and oil
content, crispness and color of the potato chips were stud-
ied for both pre-treatments and at four frying: 120, 140,
160 and 180 C.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
Potatoes (variety Desiree) and vegetable oil (Chef, COP-
RONA, Chile) were the raw materials. Potatoes stored at
8 C and 95% relative humidity were washed and peeled
before cutting. Slices (thickness of 2.0 mm) were cut from
the pith of the parenchymatous region of potato tubers
using an electric slicing machine (Berkel, model EAS65).
A circular cutting mold was used to make circular slices
with a diameter of 30 mm.
2.2. Pre-treatments
Slices were rinsed immediately after cutting for 1 min in
distilled water to eliminate some starch adhering to the sur-
face prior to frying. Blanched samples were prepared by
heating raw slices in 5 l of hot water at 85 C for 3.5 min
(potato-to-water ratio 0.005 w/w). Blanched slices were
considered as the control (i). Blanched slices were soaked
in a 3% NaCl solution at 25 C for 5 min. These samples
were called salt soaked slices (ii).
1477
2.3. Frying conditions
Ten slices per sampling time were deep-fried in 4 l of hot
oil contained in an electrical fryer (Beckers, Model F1-C,
Italy) at each of the four temperatures (120, 140,160 and
180 C) and pre-treatments tested. Frying temperature
was kept almost constant (±1 C). Slices were fried at dif-
ferent time intervals until reach a final moisture content of
1.8 % (wet basis). Previously, the corresponding total fry-
ing times and the sampling intervals for each frying temper-
ature were determined experimentally. The oil was
preheated for 1 h prior to frying, and discarded after 6 h
of use (Blumenthal, 1991).
2.4. Analyses
Moisture content of potato chips was measured by dry-
ing the samples in a convection oven until constant weight
at 105 C. The oil content was determined when required
by a simple and rapid method that consists in an initial
extraction with a mixture of 1:2:0.8 (v/v/v) in chloroform,
methanol, and water. Then, this mixture is adjusted to
2:2:1.8 (v/v/v) to continue the oil extraction. In this way,
the chloroform layer contains the purified oil (Bligh &
Dyer, 1959).
Color of potato chips was measured using a Minolta
Chromo Meter CR 200b attached to a data-processor
DP-100 using the CIE Lab L*, a* and b* color scale. Trip-
licate readings were carried out at 25 C on each three equi-
distant locations of each slide (for both sides) and the mean
values of L*, a* and b* were recorded. The kinetics of color
formation of potato slices during frying at four different oil
temperatures was followed by the parameter total color
change (DE) which was calculated in the following way
2 2 2 1=2
DE ¼ ððL0  L Þ þ ða0  a Þ þ ðb0  b Þ Þ . The L*a*b*
values correspond to the values of potatoes slices fried at
different frying times and the values of L0 a0 b0 corresponds
to the raw potato (frying time zero). Experimental data of
chip color changes DE was fit to the following empirical
relationship:
 
t
DE ¼ b1 þ b2 exp ð7Þ
b3
where t is the frying time, and b1, b2 and b3 are regres-
sion coefficients. All frying experiments were done in
triplicate.
Texture measurements of the chips were performed at
room temperature (18 C) by a puncture test performed
in a Texture Analyzer TA.XT2 (Stable Micro System, Sur-
rey, UK). Force vs. distance curves were generated with the
puncture test at different frying times by mounting the sam-
ple over a three-point-support, where the distance between
points was 15 mm (Segnini et al., 1999). The punch diame-
ter and the cross-head speed was 2 mm and 60 mm/min,
respectively. The parameter maximum force (MF) was
obtained from the force vs. distance curves using the soft-
ware Texture Expert (v 6.606) of the Texture Analyzer.
1478 F. Pedreschi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 79 (2007) 1474–1482

Modeling the texture during frying used normalized values
of MF, which were denoted as MF*.
3. Results and discussion
Moisture loss profiles for blanched slices and salt soaked
slices fried at 120 and 180 C are shown in Fig. 1. There
was no significant difference (P > 0.05) between the pat-
terns of moisture loss during frying at the four tempera-
tures tested for slices of both pre-treatments since they
have similar surface and internal microstructure. The
model with variable coefficient of diffusion fits properly
experimental data of water loss for all the experimental
conditions studied. Water loss increased drastically with
frying temperature for salt soaked potato slices as expected
(Fig. 2). The same trend was observed for blanched potato
slices during frying (results not shown). From the point of
view of heat and water transfer, the behavior of control
and salt soaked NaCl potato slices with respect to water
loss was quite similar during frying. Blanching has been
reported as a pre-treatment that could improve the color
and texture of the chips and reduce their oil uptake
(Califano & Calvelo, 1987). On the other hand, NaCl
soaking has been reported as a pre-treatment which reduce
oil uptake and improve the texture in French fries (Bunger
et al., 2003) and improve color in chips (Santis, Mendoza,
Moyano, Pedreschi, & Dejmek, in press). D0 values were
similar for blanched and samples soaked in NaCl before
frying suggesting no such a big difference in the water loss
mechanism for both pretreatments during frying (Table 1).
Fig. 3 shows that oil absorption was very high even for
short frying times suggesting surface wettings as a decisive

1.00

0.80

0.60
mt/m0

0.40

0.20

0.00
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
Frying time (s)

Fig. 1. Observed and predicted water loss of blanched (empty symbols) and NaCl soaked (filled symbols) potato slices fried at 120 (circles) and 180 C
(triangles). Solid lines correspond to predicted values using Eq. (4).

1.00

120 °C
0.80
140 °C
160 °C
0.60
mt/m0

180 °C

0.40

0.20

0.00
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
Frying time (s)

Fig. 2. Observed and predicted water loss of NaCl soaked potato slices fried at 120, 140, 160 and 180 C. Solid lines correspond to predicted values using
Eq. (4).

Table 1
D0 and b calculated from Eq. (2).
120 C 140 C 160 C 180 C
D0 (m2/s) b D0 (m2/s) b D0 (m2/s) b D0 (m2/s) b
Blanched 4.93E09 0.19 4.18E09 5.79 1.20E08 2.92 1.47E08 2.92
Soaked in NaCl 3.10E09 1.20 7.19E09 2.29 8.70E09 4.35 1.69E08 2.71
 F. Pedreschi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 79 (2007) 1474–1482 1479

0.80

Oil uptake (g oil/g dry solid)

0.60

0.40 120 °C
140 °C
160 °C
0.20
180 °C

0.00
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
Frying time (s)

Fig. 3. Kinetics of oil uptake in NaCl soaked potato slices during frying 120, 140, 160 and 180 C. Solid lines correspond to predicted values using Eq. (4).

0.8
Blanched
Oil uptake (g oil/g dry solid)

NaCl
0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
120 140 160 180
Frying temperature (°C)

Fig. 4. Final oil content of blanched and NaCl soaked potato chips (moisture content: 1.8 %) fried at 120, 140, 160 and 180 C.

Table 2
Equilibrium oil values (g oil/g dry solid) and K values corresponding to the end of the frying process
120 C 140 C 160 C 180 C
Blanched Oeq, 0.7591 ± 0.0492 Oeq, 0.7052 ± 0.0468 Oeq, 0.7343 ± 0.0177 Oeq, 0.5927 ± 0.0297
K, 0.0033 ± 0.0028 K, 0.0110 ± 0.0158 K, 0.0180 ± 0.0102 K, 0.0837 ± 0.2125
Soaked in NaCl Oeq, 0.7517 ± 0.0397 Oeq, 0.7100 ± 0.0066 Oeq, 0.6282 ± 0.0375 Oeq, 0.5137 ± 0.0130
K, 0.0022 ± 0.0038 K, 0.0085 ± 0.0033 K, 0.0220 ± 0.0222 K, 0.1192 ± 0.0264

30

20
ΔE

120 °C
140 °C
10 160 °C
180 °C

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
Frying time (s)

Fig. 5. Kinetics of color development NaCl soaked potato slices fried at 120, 140, 160 and 180 C.
1480 F. Pedreschi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 79 (2007) 1474–1482

mechanism of oil uptake in salt soaked potato slices during tents are required to minimize color development during
frying as some authors previously reported (Aguilera frying (Mottur, 1989). Color changes in the salt soaked
& Gloria-Hernández, 2000; Bouchon et al., 2003; Ufheil potato slices during frying were followed by DE, since this
& Escher, 1996). The higher the frying temperatures, the color parameter showed notorious changes during frying.
faster that potato slices reach high levels of oil in very short Salt soaked potato slices tend to get darker as frying pro-
times. Model represented by Eq. (5) fits properly the exper- ceeds (as a result of surface non-enzymatic browning reac-
imental data of oil uptake not only for blanched but for tions) as indicating by the progressive increasing of DE
also salt soaked potato slices during frying. These results values with frying time (Fig. 5). The same trend was
are coincident wit those found by Moyano and Pedreschi observed for blanched potato slices (results not shown).
(2006) for raw and pre-dried potato slices (Panda variety) The higher the frying temperature the darker the potato
during frying. The higher the frying temperature, the lower chips get since non-enzymatic browning reactions are
the oil absorbed by potato chips (Fig. 4). For all the tem- highly temperature dependant. Soaking in NaCl improved
peratures tested, salt soaking of potato slices reduced oil
absorption after frying (5%, 3%, 8% and 10% for 120,
140, 160 and 180 C, respectively). From a nutritional Table 3
and healthy point of view this fact is very interesting since Total color difference (DE) for blanched and NaCl soaked potato chips
it has also been demonstrated that the salt soaking process (moisture content: 1.8%) fried at 120, 140, 160 and 180 C
before frying could reduce acrylamide formation in potato Frying temperature (C) Total color difference (DE)a,
chips in 80% at 160 C (Pedreschi et al., in press). Table 2 pre-treatment
shows the parameters K and Oeq calculated after fitting oil Blanched NaCl soaked
data (in dry basis) with Eq. (5) (Fig. 3). 120 25.18 ± 0.345 23.71 ± 0.205
Fried potato color is the result of Maillard, non-enzy- 140 22.64 ± 0.190 19.00 ± 0.259
matic browning reactions that depends on the superficial 160 23.80 ± 0.244 21.71 ± 0.180
180 29.76 ± 0.29 22.92 ± 0.29
reducing sugar content, and the temperature and frying
a
period (Márquez & Añón, 1986). Low reducing sugar con- Values after ± represent the standard deviation of DE values.

3.0

2.5 A
Normalized maximum force

2.0

1.5

120 °C
1.0
140 °C

0.5 160 °C
180 °C
0.0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
Frying time (s)

3.0

2.5 B
Normalized maximum force

2.0

1.5

120 °C
1.0
140 °C
160 °C
0.5
180 °C

0.0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
Frying time (s)

Fig. 6. Kinetics of textural changes represented by the parameter normalized maximum force (MF*) in (A) blanched potato slices and (B) NaCl soaked
potato slices fried at 120, 140, 160 and 180 C.
 F. Pedreschi et al. / Journal of Food Engineering 79 (2007) 1474–1482
Table 4
Maximum force (MF) for blanched and NaCl soaked potato chips
(moisture content: 1.8%) fried at 120, 140, 160 and 180 C
Frying temperature (C) Normalized maximum force (MF)a,
pre-treatment
Blanched NaCl soaked
120 7.72 ± 2.999 8.85 ± 2.263
140 5.60 ± 0.902 6.33 ± 0.813
160 5.86 ± 1.538 6.507 ± 1.064
180 6.12 ± 0.955 6.810 ± 0.872
a
Values after ± represent the standard deviation of MF values.
the color potato chips as the values of DE diminished con-
siderably with respect to those corresponding to blanched
potato chips at the four different temperatures tested
(Table 3). Soaking of potato slices in NaCl diminished
the DE values of only blanched potato slices in 6%, 16%,
9% and 23% for chips fried at 120, 140, 160 and 180 C,
respectively. In agreement with our results, Santis et al.
(in press) found that soaking potato slices in NaCl solu-
tions of different concentration before frying originate
paler potato chips.
Maximum force (MF) is defined as the force at which
the punch penetrates the outer layer of the surface of fried
potato slices and could describe properly the crispness of
fried potato slices. Model represented by Eq. (6) fits prop-
erly experimental data of normalized maximum force
(MF*) for both blanched and salt soaked potato slices fried
at 120, 140, 160 and 180 C (Fig. 6(a) and (b)). First term in
Eq. (6) represents the decrease in F* due to the initial soft-
ening of potato tissue induced at short frying times while
the second term represents the formation of crust at longer
time. Higher frying temperatures resulted in both a faster
softening of the tissue and hardening of the crust. Soaking
of potato slices in NaCl increased the crispness of blanched
potato chips in 15%, 13%, 11% and 11 % when fried at 120,
140, 160 and 180 C, respectively. The highest crispness
was developed by potato chips fried at 120 C. This result
is coincident with that found for unblanched and pre-dried
potato chips. Table 4 shows that chips that were soaked in
NaCl are crispier than only blanched chips after frying.
Contrary to expected in both treatments, crispness
increased as the frying temperature diminished.
4. Conclusions
Moisture loss profiles of blanched and NaCl soaked
potato slices showed almost no differences during frying
at 120, 140, 160 and 180 C. However, oil uptake increases
as the frying temperature decreases for both pre-treat-
ments. Soaking of blanched potato slices in NaCl
decreased oil absorption up to 10% at 180 C and gener-
ated paler chips (lower DE values). Potato chips fried at
120 C were the crispiest and soaked potato slices were
crispier than blanched chips for all the oil temperatures
tested in this research.
1481
Acknowledgments
Authors acknowledge financial support from FONDE-
CYT Project No. 1030411.
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