Abstract

The oil-absorption capacity of different restructured potato chips during deep-fat frying was investigated. Low-leach potato flake was chosen as the major ingredient, whereas native and pregelatinized potato starches were studied as complementary ingredients. Results showed that oil absorption increased significantly when reducing product thickness in all products. Interestingly, it was found that the product containing native potato starch as an ingredient picked up the lowest amount of oil when sheeted into a thick chip, whereas it absorbed the largest amount of oil when sheeted into a thin chip. Those findings were mainly attributed to crust microstructure development as revealed by electron microscopy and confocal microscopy.