mass transfer process that leads to a succession of physical and chemical changes in the product [8]. It is one of the oldest and most common unit operation used in the preparation of foods and results in products of unique flavourtexture combinations. Atmospheric frying has been traditionally carried out at temperatures near 180 °C. However, some studies have revealed that atmospheric frying leads to loss of desirable colour and flavour of the products and imparts excess fat into the fried foods [6,14,27] which in turn becomes a key contributor to coronary heart diseases and sometimes cancer of the breast, colon and prostate glands [2].Based on the preference of consumers for healthy, low fat foods, some pre-frying oil reducing mechanisms have been investigated, aimed at improving quality attributes of fried products considerably compared to what is obtainable when traditional atmospheric frying is used. These mechanisms include post-frying hot air drying [16] and superheated steam drying [11]. Similarly, pre-frying hotair drying aimed at reducing the oil content of the resulting fried chips had also been investigated for yam chips [22] and potato chips [12,15]. Vacuum frying is a more recent technology that is an option in the production of fried products with lower oil contents and desired quality attributes. It is defined as the frying process carried out under lower pressures than the atmospheric level, aimed at lowering the boiling point of water, hence, making it possible to sustainably reduce the frying temperature [7]. The benefits of frying food materials under vacuum conditions include the preservation of natural colours and flavours [21] and the preservation of nutritional components [3] among others.Since frying brings about quality changes in fried food products, investigation of the kinetics of changes in quality attributes during frying is critically important. The knowledge of kinetic parameters during the process will help to Abstract Kinetics of mass transfer [moisture content, oil uptake, total carotenoid (TC) and shrinkage] during frying of yellow fleshed cassava roots (TMS 01/1371) was investigated. Slices were divided into (i) fresh and (ii) pre-dried to 75 % moisture content before atmospheric frying and (iii) vacuum fried. Percentage TC and activation energies of vacuum, fresh and pre-dried fried samples were 76, 63 and 61 %; and 82, 469.7, 213.7 kJ/mol, respectively.