Determination of heat transfer coefficient during high pressure frying of potatoes

Besides traditional atmospheric frying, high pressure (super-atmospheric) frying might be an alternative approach to the frying of food products. In this study, convective heat transfer coefficient during atmospheric and high pressure frying was compared. For this purpose, a pressure cooker was modified to allow the immersion of a sample into frying oil under pressure and temperature measurement of sample and oil. Heat transfer coefficient versus frying time was determined on potato slabs using changes of total mass of the experimental set-up. At the pressure of 2 bar, the results showed an almost doubled heat transfer coefficient compared to the atmospheric pressure frying. The knowledge of heat transfer coefficient during pressure frying is expected to allow accurate determination of temperature distribution and hence the kinetic calculations to lead to development of an alternative frying process.