A different perspective to study the effect of freeze, air, and osmotic drying on oil absorption during potato frying.

The objective of this article is to assess the effect of different dehydration pretreatments on oil absorption and illustrate how the different ways results can be reported may even drive to opposite conclusions. To do so, potato cylinders were blanched in hot water and dried until a moisture content of 62% (w.b.) by either freeze-drying, air drying, and osmotic drying with a sucrose solution or osmotic drying with a NaCl solution. Control (blanched) and dried potatoes were deep-fat fried at 170 degrees C for time periods between 1 and 5 min. Water removal and total oil uptake were determined and 2 oil fractions were distinguished: superficial oil and penetrated oil. Compared to the control, freeze dried samples increased oil uptake in 15.4% (d.b.) whereas air-dried samples reduced it in 11.2% (d.b.). Similarly, osmotic dehydrated samples showed a high reduction in oil uptake compared to the control (up to 27%[d.b.] when using a sucrose solution). However, this high decrease in oil absorption was attributed to the increase in solids content occurring during the osmotic dehydration process rather than a reduction in the amount of oil taken up. In fact, when the amount of oil absorbed per cylinder was determined, it was verified that oil uptake of osmotically dehydrated samples was even higher than the control, as opposed to what has been previously reported in the literature. These results highlight the importance of selecting an adequate basis to carry out comparisons properly.