Changes in the textural and thermal properties of batter coated fried potato strips during post frying holding

Post frying conditions play a very important role in consumer acceptability of French fries. During post frying holding time, from when fried potatoes are removed from a fryer to when consumed, texture of the product dramatically changes. Therefore, it is important to understand how and why these changes happen. In this study, the effect of different batter formulations and post frying holding time (with and without using a heat lamp) on fat and moisture distribution, textural and thermal properties of fried potato strips was studied. Moisture content ranged from 3.90 to 5.32 (in core region), 0.54 to 1.19 (in crust region), and 1.96 to 2.89 g/g db (in whole potato strips). Fat content of the core, crust and whole potato strip regions ranged between 0.01-0.03, 0.14-0.25, and 0.07-0.15 g/g db, respectively. A slight migration of moisture from the core to crust regions was observed under heat lamp holding, but this did not affect the total moisture content. Potato samples that were not kept under heat lamp showed lower hardness than samples kept under heat lamp. Brittleness values of potato samples increased from 0 to 10 min heat lamp duration and after that it significantly decreased. It was found that glass transition temperature of the samples was also affected by batter formulation and heat lamp duration.