Study of oil uptake during deep-fat frying of Taro (Colocasia esculenta) chips

The effects of a water blanching pretreatment (BP, 85 degrees C for 3min), sample thickness (1 and 2mm), oil temperature (180 and 200 degrees C), and frying time (1 and 3min) on the oil uptake (OU) behavior during the deep-fat frying of pre-dried (oven dried at 70 degrees C for 20min) taro (Colocasia esculenta) chips were investigated. Results demonstrated that using short frying times and high oil temperatures causes OU to decrease in both blanched and non-blanched samples (p<0.01). In addition, higher product thicknesses were found to increase OU in non-blanched taro chips, while the opposite trend was found for the blanched slices (p<0.01). BP also affected the OU, yielding lower fat contents (up to 80% of OU reduction) (p<0.05), thus allowing the development of a fried taro product with reduced fat content (less than 30% fat content in dry basis). Se investigo el efecto del escaldado con agua (85 degrees C, 3min), espesor de la muestra (1 y 2 mm), temperatura del aceite (180 y 200 degrees C) y tiempo de freido (1 y 3min) sobre la absorcion de aceite (AA) durante el freido por inmersion de chips de malanga (Colocasia esculenta) pre-secados (70 degrees C, 20min). Los resultados demostraron que el uso de tiempos cortos de freido y temperaturas altas del aceite disminuyo la AA en las muestras escaldadas y no escaldadas (p<0,01). Ademas, se encontro que la AA fue mayor en los chips de malanga no escaldados, mientras que la tendencia inversa se observo en los chips escaldados (p<0,01). El escaldado disminuyo significativamente la AA (hasta un 80% de reduccion) (p<0,05), permitiendo el desarrollo de un producto frito de malanga con contenido reducido de grasa (menor al 30% base seca).