Many popular foods are prepared by battering and breading a substrate followed by deep-fat frying, also known as immersion frying. However, these foods are high in calories and fat. This has led to research on the reduction of fat absorption during immersion frying. This paper focuses on the use of functional ingredients, usually proteins or non-protein hydrocolloids, which can be incorporated into the batter and/ or breading, or applied as a post-breading dip to retard oil absorption. Protein ingredients from both animal and plant sources have been applied as films or in aqueous solutions to battered and breaded foods. Non-protein hydrocolloids such as cellulose derivatives, gums, calcium reactive pectins, and other plant-based flours have also been utilized. Due to the applied nature of the process and the potential economic impact, many of the ingredients and strategies presented here have been culled from the patent literature. This paper also describes three theories of oil absorption into fried foods; the waterreplacement mechanism, the cooling-phase effect, and the surfactant theory, and reviews research that reports the impact of oil absorption on the nutritional and textural properties of the battered and breaded foods.

Producers of deep-fried foods seek new methods to lower the fat content of these foods. The effectiveness of edible films of proteins and carbohydrates and the addition of prefrying dips of egg white lower fat absorption. Common additions of chemicals to films called plasticizers allow them to improve distribution when coating a substrate and improve their water vapor permeability and mechanical properties. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the addition of corn or oat fiber to an egg albumin solution will increase fat absorption inhibition that occurs in deep-fat frying compared to an egg albumin solution alone. Dipping chicken fritters in an egg white dip with no fiber present produced samples with the highest lipid reductions compared to the control. The addition of fiber to any of the dips did not produce a synergistic effect to reduce lipid absorption. The egg dip, 1%, and 2% fiber dip amounts were successful in reducing the lipid content compared to control, but not the 5% fiber dip amount. As the fiber dip concentration decreased for corn and oat fiber, lipid levels decreased. The addition of egg white, corn fiber, or oat fiber affected the color and texture of the fritters.Practical applications: Reducing the oil content of chicken fritters could provide lower fat alternatives to normal deep fried foods that still retain the desirable characteristics that full fat foods provide. If fat reduction below 35% calories from fat can be achieved, markets such as schools and healthcare that are currently restricted to these types of products could be opened.