The effect of cold atmospheric plasma pretreatment on oil absorption, acrylamide content and sensory characteristics of deep-fried potato strips

This study investigated the impact of 60 kV Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP) pretreatment for varying durations (5, 10, and 15 min) on potato strip characteristics before and after frying, emphasizing oil uptake, acrylamide formation. Potato samples treated with cap showed significantly better physicochemical characteristics. Scanning electron microscopy revealed deformation of cell wall due to CAP treatment. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy indicated structural changes, while X-ray diffraction analysis suggested that starch remained amorphous state in CAP-pretreated samples. Post-frying, CAP-treated potato strips exhibited altered oil distribution with reduced absorption, possibly due to microstructural changes. CAP substantially reduced acrylamide formation during frying by degrading asparagine and inactivating amylase. CAP affected strip color, with increased brightness and decreased redness and yellowness after 14 days. Sensory evaluation showed no significant difference, with prolonged CAP-treated strips receiving higher overall acceptability scores. These findings highlight CAP as a non-thermal technology to enhance fried potato product quality and safety.

Intelligence detection of oil absorption in French fries by surface profiles

Surface profiles are important evaluation indices for oil absorption behavior of fried foods. This research established two intelligent models of partial least-squares regression (PLSR) and back propagation artificial neural network (BP-ANN) for monitoring the oil absorption behavior of French fries based on the surface characteristics. Surface morphology and texture of French fries by rapeseed oil (RO) and high-oleic peanut oil (HOPO) at different temperatures were investigated. Results showed that oil content of samples increased with frying temperature, accounting for 37.7% and 41.4% of samples fried by RO and HOPO respectively. The increase of crust ratio, roughness and texture parameters (Fm, Nwr, fwr, Wc) and the decrease of uniformity were observed with the frying temperature. Coefficients of prediction set of PLSR and BP-ANN models were more than 0.93, which indicated that surface features combined with chemometrics were rapid and precise methods for determining the oil content of French fries.