Advances in vacuum frying: Recent developments and potential applications

Vacuum frying has proven to be the most feasible technique to obtain safe and nutritious deep-fried food without compromising its organoleptic and textural properties. This frying system has a lot of benefits over conventional frying such as reduced acrylamide content, lower oil content and better preservation of nutritious compounds. The most promising advantage of vacuum frying is its ability to produce foods with a low glycemic response. Optimization of vacuum frying technology is, however, a prerequisite to attain a fried product with desirable quality. Microwave-assisted vacuum frying, ultrasound-assisted microwave vacuum frying, and pulse-spouted microwave vacuum frying are some of the novel frying techniques which improve the quality of fried products with enhanced nutrient retention, reduced oil uptake, and reduced starch digestibility. In addition, various pretreatments, posttreatments, packaging, and storage conditions have a profound effect on the quality of vacuum-fried foods. This review aims to address the advantages vacuum frying offers over conventional frying, providing an overview of recent developments in this technology, and the effects of vacuum frying on the nutritional qualities of food. Practical ApplicationsFrying industry all over the world is in boom as frying provides unique flavor and texture to the food products. However, the consumption of fried foods has been related to the development of various diseases due to the generation of harmful compounds at higher temperatures employed during deep-frying. Vacuum frying has been suggested to overcome this limitation of atmospheric frying by maintaining low-temperature conditions, thus producing safe foods. This review will focus on the developments done in vacuum fryer over the past few years and evaluate what enhancements in final fried products can be observed upon modifying the vacuum frying unit. Replacement of atmospheric fried products with vacuum-fried products could further boost the frying sector by producing toxin-free products without sacrificing sensorial or organoleptic properties.