Effect of pulsed electric field pretreatment on oil content of potato chips

Abstract The purpose of this work was to reduce the oil content of potato chips by the pulsed electric field (PEF) pretreatment. The effects of PEF on oil content, color parameters, texture, microstructure, and acrylamide content of potato chips were investigated. The following appropriate pulse parameters were selected for pretreatment: the number of pulses was 2000, the pulse width was 5 μs, the frequency was 20 Hz, and pulse direction was unidirectional pulse. The results showed that the electric field strength had a significant effect on the oil content and texture of potato chips. When pretreating the potato slices under the electric field strength of 10 kV/cm, the oil content of potato chips was reduced by 21.2%, and the hardness and crispness were significantly improved. The surface of the potato chips became smoother, and the porosity in the cross-section increased, which might be the reason for the reduced oil content of the potato chips. Finally, the potato chips prepared in current experiment had a low acrylamide content, approximately 10 ng/g (fresh weight). The above findings may provide useful information to guide the effective strategies for the practical application of PEF in reducing the oil content of fried foods.