Frying Technology

Food Lipids Technology

(PPP 417)

12/3/21
 Introduction
• Fried foods have provided culinary delight to
people worldwide for centuries
• In the frying process, food, such as vegetables,
meat, or seafood, is brought in direct contact
with hot oil. The food surface becomes golden
yellow to dark brown in color and develops a
pleasant fried food flavor
• Frying is done in homes, restaurants (food
services), and at large industrial operations
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 Frying Type
• Pan/shallow fat frying
– Normally used in homes, or restaurant
– Food is not submerged in oil
– Lower temperature, to keep the freshness of the food
• Deep fat frying
– Normally used in restaurant, and industries.
– Submerged completely in oil
– Higher temperature, to bring out the crispness, quick
cooking, etc.
– Further classified: batch, continuous, par-fry
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 Frying Type
• Batch frying
– Time and temperature setting
– Restaurant: the food is placed in a wire basket, which is
lowered into a bed of hot oil. The basket is removed
from the hot oil when the product is fully fried
– Frying chips in small-scale industries: big pan, a lot of
oil, fried product is removed and spun through spinner
to reduce excess oil. The recovered oil is reused
– Manual or mechanical stirring system (ex: abon
industries)

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 Frying Type
• Continuous frying
– Food enters the fryer at one end, is fried and
taken out from the other end
– Product is submerged in a bed of hot oil for a
specified time depending on the type of food
being fried
– Oil is heated directly or indirectly
– Oil circulation/recovery system: carbon active,
adsorbent

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 Frying Type
• Par - frying
– Not ready for direct consumption
– Food is partially dehydrated in an industrial fryer and flash frozen
at -20°C
– The packaged par-fried food is stored at -20.6°C, distributed in
freezer trucks until destination
– It is taken out of the freezer and fried immediately without
thawing
– Most common products are French fries, potato wedges,
breaded chicken, coated or uncoated vegetables, nugget, etc
– Reduces the manpower and preparation times  convenience
and cost savings

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 ROLE OF OIL OR FAT IN FRYING
• Oil provides several important attributes to
the fried product that makes the fried food
palatable and desirable to the consumers,
these include: Texture, Fried food flavor,
Mouthfeel, Aftertaste
• An excellent heat transfer medium for
dehydration of the food during frying

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 SELECTION OF FRYING OIL
• Consideration when selecting oil: flavor,
texture, appearance, mouthfeel, aftertaste,
shelf life of the product; availability of the oil,
cost, nutritional requirements
• Ideal frying oil:
– Low in saturated fat
– Low in linolenic acid
– High oxidative and flavor stability
– Not hydrogenated (trans-fat free)
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 THE FRYING PROCESS
Frying is a complex
WATER
OUT
process where
simultaneous heat and
mass transfer as well as
HEAT
chemical reactions take
IN place
• Hot oil supplies the heat to the product being fried
• Heat turns the internal moisture of the food product into
water vapor.
• The water vapor comes out of the product through the outer
surface
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 The Changes Occurring
In the FOOD In the OIL
• The food loses moisture • Oil in the fryer becomes
• The food surface develops a darker
darker color (sometimes, hard • Flavor development
crust)  maillard reaction • Chemical reactions:
• The fried food develops a 1) Hydrolysis
firmer texture (or crust) 2) Autoxidation
• The food also develops fried 3) Oxidative Polymerization
flavor and aroma 4) Thermal Polymerization

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 Hydrolisis

Triacylglycerol + H2O = Free Fatty Acid (FFA) + Diacylglycerol

• The presence of surfactant

– Chemical refining
– From food [ex: emulsifier, egg]
– Oil decomposition product [ex: mono and di-acyl
glycerol]
– Poor rinsing/washing
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 Autoxidation
• Oil is oxidized during frying. Oxidized fatty acids develop flavor
in the fried food
• Good fried food flavor  lactones and certain aldehydes.
Most of these compounds originate from linoleic acid
• Autoxidation of unsaturated fatty acids is initiated by a free
radical, which is formed in the oil when an unsaturated fatty
acid is exposed to oxygen in the presence of metal
• Initiation  reaction with oxygen  propagation (beware of
linolenic acid)  termination (no more oxygen or UFA)
• Metal trace could come from food or oil itself. Removal during
bleaching step. Antioxidant added in oil (ex: BHA, BHT, TBHQ)

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 Autoxidation
• Oxidative stability of the oil depends primarily on its
polyunsaturated fatty acid content
• As the number of double bonds increase in the fatty acid, the
relative rate of oxidation increases at higher than a linear rate
• Which one is better? Palm oil VS soybean or canola oil 
hydrogenation to reduce PUFA

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 Oxidative Polymerization
• Oxidative polymers are formed in autoxidation when the free
radicals terminate each other as under autoxidation
(Termination)
• Forming dimers, trimers, or polymers.
• Do not always impart an off flavor to the freshly fried food, but
promote rancidity on storage
• The oxidative polymers are strong free radicals and can
decompose while the fried product is in storage
• Some of oxidative polymer molecules may contain a higher
amount of oxygen than the triacylglycerol molecule, The free
radicals and the released oxygen can continue the autoxidation
process in the product during storage

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 Thermal Polymerization
• Polymerization of oil occurs under heat with or
without the presence of oxygen
• Heat can cleave the oil molecule or fatty acid.
These cleaved compounds can then react with
each other, forming large molecules
• In the frying process, excessive fryer heat and
excessive fryer down time can produce high
levels of thermal polymers
• Impart a bitter aftertaste to the fried food
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 Complex Reaction

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 Oil Absorption: French Fries
• PSO constituted the highest fraction of TO during frying of the control; the
higher the frying temperature, the higher the percentage of PSO based on the
TO content
• When the slices were removed from the fryer, a higher temperature
difference develops between the surface and the interior, which, in turn,
generates a higher negative pressure in the pore space leading to more oil
penetration into their microstructure during cooling

Friday, December 03, 2021 Yoga Pratama - Food Technology UNDIP 18

 Oil absorpiton: Potato Chips
• Potato chips are very thin pieces (1.27–1.78mmthick) of
potatoes fried to a final oil and moisture contents of ∼35%
and 1.7%, respectively
• Potato chips contain a significant amount of fat, reaching in
many cases∼1/3 of the total food product by weight
• This ensures a high level of satiety, but can also pose a risk.
Especially over the last decade the desirability of the reducing
fat content of deep fried products has been recognized

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 Acrylamide in foods
• Not detected in raw and boiled food
• Considerable interest world-wide because acrylamide has been
classified as “probably carcinogenic to humans” by IARC (International
Agency for Research on Cancer; http://www.iarc.fr/)

Jessika De Clippeleer – Chemical food

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safety: actual aspects
Acrylamide

Acrylamide in foods

Jessika De Clippeleer – Chemical food

21
safety: actual aspects
Acrylamide

ACRYL AMIDE

• ACRYL group = acyl group derived from acrylic acid

• AMIDE functional group:

carboxylic acid amine

amide bond

Same reaction as that that forms peptide bonds between amino acids
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Acrylamide

Acrylamide in foods - Sweden 2002

• Elevated levels of acrylamide were found in

– French fries
– Potato chips
– Breakfast cereals A range of fried and oven-cooked foods
– Biscuits
– Brewed coffee
– Starchy food fried or baked
• Much higher levels than uncooked, raw, or boiled food:
The temperature is lower and there is an excessive amount of water
that inhibits acrylamide production
• Acrylamide appears to form as a result of a reaction between
specific amino acids and sugars found in foods when heated
above 100°C
Jessika De Clippeleer – Chemical food
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safety: actual aspects
 Acrylamide

Case study: acrylamide in potatoes

• Correlation between colour and

acrylamide
• The content of reducing sugars is
closely related to the final color and
acrylamide formation of the fried
potatoes.
• On the other hand, selecting of
cultivars to fry that contain low
levels of asparagine (another
acrylamide precursor) may result in
low-acrylamide fried potatoes
Jessika De Clippeleer – Chemical food
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safety: actual aspects
 Indicators of frying oil quality
• In many frying operations, a portion of the fryer oil is replaced
by fresh oil when the free fatty acid level exceeds 0.35% 
wrong!
• Degradation of product flavor is associated with oxidation and
other reactions in the oil
• Free fatty acids in the fryer oil could be considered as a valid
oil quality indicator, where the free fatty acids are allowed to
go up to >0.5% in the fryer
• Other parameter? Peroxide value, rancimat analysis (lengthy
process)
• Product quality – oil quality study. Markers and the threshold
values are expected to be different for different products.

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 PALM OIL AS FRYING OIL
• Palm oil is one of the largest source of oil in the
world
• Palm oil and palm olein (the liquid fraction) show
excellent frying performance. In addition, both palm
oil and palm olein produce a highly desirable fried
food flavor
• Unfortunately, it is not accepted by some consumers
in the world. For example, USA  soybean,
Mediterranian  olive oil

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 TYPE OF RESTAURANT FRYERS

Countertop fryers Floortop fryers Pressure fryers

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 TYPE OF INDUSTRIAL FRYERS

Batch fryers Continuous fryers

Vacuum fryers
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 OIL FILTERING SYSTEM

• Separate left over crumbs

• Maintain oil quality by adsorbents (activated carbon, alumina,
silica, etc)
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 PRESSURE FRYERS
• Used for frying chicken, meat products, and breaded shrimp
• The volatile flavor components, which are normally stripped from
the food during conventional frying, are retained in the confines
of the fryer.
• Some of these delicate flavor components are claimed to
penetrate into the food during frying. This improves the flavor of
the product compared with the conventional frying process.
• The oil does not deteriorate in a pressure fryer as rapidly in a
conventional fryer. This is because the oil is not in contact with air
during frying.
• A good example of a pressure fried product is the Original Recipe
of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC)  claimed that the subtle
volatile flavor components are better retained in the product
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 VACUUM FRYERS
• A vacuum fryer is used to fry fruits or
vegetables where it is important to retain the
original product color with minimum
browning and retained natural flavour
• Used with lower temperature in vacuum
temperature to dehydrate the product (lower
boiling point of water)

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 CONTINUOUS CURTAIN FRYERS
• Less oil needed  cost
saving
• Circulated and filtered oil 
longer usage
• Cleaner operation
• Gentle oil curtains preserve
even the most delicate
coatings

VIDEO 1 VIDEO 2

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 References
• Fereidoon Shahidi (ed). 2005. BAILEY’S
INDUSTRIAL OIL AND FAT PRODUCTS. John
Wiley & Sons, Inc

12/3/21