Vacuum frying of peas: effect of coating and pre-drying.

The objective of the research was to compare the effect of coating with sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, hot-air and vacuum microwave pre-drying on the physicochemical properties and sensory scores of vacuum-fried peas. The three pre-treatments prior to frying were shown to obviously reduce oil absorption in vacuum-fried peas. Among the three pre-treatments, coating with sodium carboxymethyl cellulose for peas produced the lowest oil content products (24.53 %), and the chlorophyll retention was 77.08 %. Vitamin C and breaking force for fried products with vacuum microwave pre-drying were 46.56 μg/100 g (db) and 8.64 N, which were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) better than those of other treatments. However, fried peas treated by hot air pre-drying showed the highest breaking force and lowest chlorophyll retention. All the fried peas had water activity (Aw) values of less than 0.35, indicating that the products have a long shelf life. Sensory scores showed vacuum-fried peas treated by vacuum microwave pre-drying had the highest acceptability.