A correlation between oil measurement methods and the application of principal component analysis for selecting the best pre-frying treatment of reduced-fat banana chips

The global market value of snack foods increases annually. However, overconsumption of snack foods, especially junk foods causes various health problems. Healthy snacks are therefore considered as the alternative choices for the customers. Banana is one of the materials used for healthy snack production such as banana chips due to its high health-promoting compounds. However, the fried chips contain high oil content due to deep frying process, leading to a risk of health problems and short shelf-life. In this study, we propose different combination techniques as a pre-frying treatment such as hydrocolloids coating (guar gum or carboxyl methyl cellulose) combined with freezing and moisture reduction combined with freezing (MRF). The quality parameters (moisture content, color values, hardness and oil content using extraction and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) techniques) were assessed. The average oil temperature was the highest in MRF followed by carboxyl methyl cellulose coating combined with freezing (CMCF) and guar gum coating combined with freezing (GGF), respectively. MRF had a lower moisture and fat content but a higher brown hue compared to the other treatments. A red area obtained from CLSM images was highly correlated with the oil content measured by the extraction method. Furthermore, a high correlation between quality parameters and pre-frying treatments was found using principal component analysis (PCA). PCA can be used to select the most appropriate pre-frying treatment based on the desired quality parameters. MRF was the most appropriate method to reduce oil absorption by 40% reduction.

Automated summary

The global market value of snack foods increases annually. However, overconsumption of snack foods, especially junk foods causes various health problems. Healthy snacks are considered as alternative choices. Banana is used for healthy snack production due to its health-promoting compounds. In this study, different pre-frying treatments were proposed to reduce oil content in banana chips. Quality parameters were assessed and principal component analysis (PCA) was used to select the most appropriate treatment. The results showed that MRF was the most suitable method with a 40% reduction in oil absorption.