Reducing oil content of fried potato crisps considerably using a 'sweet' pre-treatment technique

Pre-drying and subsequent dipping in a sugar solution ('sugar dipping') is a potentially effective process for pre-treatment of potato crisps. In this study, potato crisps were blanched, pre-dried, and dipped in the solution of sugar (23.07 wt%) 2 s before frying at 180 degrees C. There was a significant reduction in the oil content of crisps observed. Crisps that had been treated had about 30% less oil than the samples that were not treated. The treatment did not affect the final moisture content of crisps. A linear oil-moisture relationship of samples during frying was obtained. The effect of pre-drying followed by sugar dipping on color scores of potato crisps, and the kinetics of the color changes were also evaluated. The potato crisps with dipping had more shrinkage compared with the non-dipping ones. What has emerged is that the pre-drying and subsequent sugar dipping is an effective technique for reducing the oil contents of potato crisps. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.