Research Article
Abstract
Fat uptake is considered the major nutritional critical point of deep frying because of the obesity and negative effect of excess oil consumption on human health. Hence, this study investigated the effect of pre-drying and hydrocolloids batter coating during heat and moisture transfer of coated fried potato chips. The potato slices were pre-dried coated and deep fried at 180°C for 5 min. Chemical composition, color profile; thermo-physical properties, dimensionless numbers associated with convective heat and mass transfer coefficient and sensory properties were evaluated. The result revealed that chemical composition and color profile were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) affected by pre-drying and hydrocolloids batter coating. The density, viscosity, thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity and thermal diffusivity ranged from 333.3-444.0 kg/m3, 0.5281-0.5377 pas, 22.686-31.403 W/m °C, 198.686-258.383 KJ/kgK and 2.730 × 10-4-3.826 × 10-4 m2/s, respectively. The estimated Grashof, Prandtl, Schmidt, Nusselt and Sherwood numbers ranged between 0.024-0.032, 4.14-4.71, 2.053 × 10-5 and 2.739 × 10-5, 0.0167-0.0209, 9.70 × 10-8 and 1.02 × 10-7, respectively. The heat and mass transfer coefficient values ranged from 25.26 to 42.98 W/m2 °C and 3.80 × 10-12 to 4.01 × 10-12 m/s, respectively. Hydrocolloid type distinctly dictated considerable quality attributes and apparently potato chips pre-dried, coated with egg albumin and carboxyl methylcellulose were gum tragacanth demonstrates great reduction in the fat content of the chips which will in turn decline the tendency of obesity and equally reduce cholesterol level.