Mitigation of Acrylamide in Potato Chips by Pre-drying and Pulsed Electric Field Treatment

Abstract

The object of this work was to study the effects of preliminary vacuum drying (VD), pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment, frying temperature on color, oil uptake, and acrylamide (AA) content in fried potato chips. The results of this study indicated that an increase of frying temperature from 120 to 180°C led to a decrease of frying time of around 70% for untreated and PEF pre-treated samples. The color value of L* and a* decreased with the increase of frying temperature, and those values of the sample pre-treated by PEF were significantly higher compared to those obtained from untreated samples. The PEF pre-treatment promoted the reduction of oil content of fried samples by up to 17.6, 14.2, and 16% compared with untreated samples at the frying temperatures of 120, 150, and 180°C, respectively. Higher efficiency was observed by applying the preliminary VD in the case of the frying temperature of 150°C. Furthermore, it was revealed that PEF pre-treatment and preliminary VD application lead to a synergetic effect on the reduction of AA content in potato chips. For example, with the initial moisture ratio of 0.5, pre-dried by VD and pre-treated by PEF, the AA content was noticeably decreased from 2,220 to 311 μg/kg compared to untreated and undehydrated samples at the frying temperature of 150°C. Our findings provide reference for a new pre-treatment to mitigate AA formation and to improve the quality of potato chips.

Acrylamide in food products: Formation, technological strategies for mitigation, and future outlook

“…This is because vacuum predrying can reduce the moisture content and water activity of the food matrix, which are critical factors for acrylamide formation (Saini et al, 2023). Liu et al (2022) examined the formation of acrylamide while frying potato chips, both separately by applying PEF and vacuum predrying and these two methods together. Frying time for both untreated and PEF-pretreated samples was reduced by almost 70%, when the temperature was raised from 120 to 180 • C. After PEF pretreatment, the color value of L* and a* was assessed, and it was found to have improved.…”

“…Although beneficial effect of PEF pretreatment on the mitigation of acrylamide, vacuum predrying has been shown to be more effective than PEF at reducing oil content and slowing acrylamide production, especially the frying temperature was 150 • C with dehydrated level of MRv = 0.5, however the utilization of PEF pretreatment had the potential to maintain the color of potato chips. Additionally, it was claimed that, the combination of PEF pretreatment and vacuum predrying had a synergistic impact on lowering the acrylamide content of potato chips, with the acrylamide level being reduced by roughly 85.9% (Liu et al, 2022).…”

“…Liu et al. (2022) examined the formation of acrylamide while frying potato chips, both separately by applying PEF and vacuum predrying and these two methods together. Frying time for both untreated and PEF‐pretreated samples was reduced by almost 70%, when the temperature was raised from 120 to 180°C.…”

“…Liu et al. (2022) explored the effect of vacuum predrying (30 kPa) and PEF treatment (600 V/cm for 10 ms) of potato slices before frying to mitigate the acrylamide content. The cell electroporation and structural changes enhanced the heat and mass transfer rates during frying, which resulted in a reduction in frying time.…”

“…was reduced by 2.45 times in PEF-treated samples, due to electroporation and cell disintegration. The shortened drying time significantly influences the frying behavior and thus reduces the formation of precursors Liu et al (2022). explored the effect of vacuum predrying (30 kPa) and PEF treatment (600 V/cm for 10 ms) of potato slices before frying to mitigate the acrylamide content.…”