A Comparative Study of the Characteristics of French Fries Produced by Deep Fat Frying and Air Frying

Abstract

Air frying is being projected as an alternative to deep fat frying for producing snacks such as French fries. In air frying, the raw potato sections are essentially heated in hot air containing fine oil droplets, which dehydrates the potato and attempts to impart the characteristics of traditionally produced French fries, but with a substantially lower level of fat absorbed in the product. The aim of this research is to compare: (1) the process dynamics of air frying with conventional deep fat frying under otherwise similar operating conditions, and (2) the products formed by the 2 processes in terms of color, texture, microstructure, calorimetric properties, and sensory characteristics. Although, air frying produced products with a substantially lower fat content but with similar moisture contents and color characteristics, it required much longer processing times, typically 21 min in relation to 9 min in the case of deep fat frying. The slower evolution of temperature also resulted in lower rates of moisture loss and color development reactions. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies revealed that the extent of starch gelatinization was also lower in the case of air fried product. In addition, the 2 types of frying also resulted in products having significantly different texture and sensory characteristics.

Crust morphology and crispness development during deep-fat frying of potato

“…9 which will lower the breaking resistance. Other studies confirm this for the investigated time interval; for larger time intervals (N5 min) the breaking force will eventually increase again due to a significant crust being formed (Lima & Singh, 2001;Teruel et al, 2015). There are no differences in the maximum force at breakage for the frying temperatures of 150, 165 and 180°C, which indicates that the hardness of the fry is mostly determined by the overall moisture content in this temperature range.…”

Evaluation of 10 genotypes of sweetpotato for fries

“…In a study by Teruel et al (2015), the deep-fried fries were found to be less/moderately hard. This is difficult to get as it may vary with regard to the region, country, town, and even type of consumers.…”

“…According to Teruel, Gordon, Linares, Ahromrit, and Niranjan (2015), some level of browning occurs during deep frying in oil. Again, this indicates that the frying conditions used did not cause a lot of browning but were just enough to cook all starches in the sweetpotato.…”

Effects of oil-water mixed frying and pure-oil frying on the quality characteristics of soybean oil and chicken chop

“…Due to its operational simplicity, economic viability, high versatility and its ability to create distinctive sensory characteristics in foods that are highly appreciated by consumers, frying is extensively employed in both domestic and industrial sectors (Teruel et al, 2015). Continuous and repeated use of frying oil is a common practice to cut expenses (Aladedunye & Przybylski, 2013).…”