Insight into the effect of fatty acid composition on the texture of French fries.

BACKGROUND Several researchers have reported that the texture of fries was affected by the fatty acid composition of oil, but the mechanism of this effect is not clear. In this regard, fries were fried in refined rapeseed oil and fully hydrogenated rapeseed oil with diverse proportions (0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%) and were analyzed based on the content of moisture and oil, texture, thermal properties, crystalline properties, and microstructure. RESULTS The outcomes presented that fries fried in fully hydrogenated oil had less oil absorption and moisture loss than those fried in refined oil. The result from the texture analyzer, differential scanning calorimetry, and X-ray diffraction showed that the hardness, enthalpy, and relative crystallinity increased with the increase of the proportion of fully hydrogenated oil. However, the peaks of starch-lipid complexes were hardly observed during frying. Besides, scanning electron microscopy results displayed that some physically trapped fat was observed in fries fried in mixed hydrogenated oil. Stereomicroscope illustrated that the crust thickness of the fries increased slightly with the increase of the proportion of fully hydrogenated oil. CONCLUSION Overall, the upsurge in crust thickness and oil crystals were responsible for the increase in the hardness of the fries. This indicated that the texture of fries can be manipulated by altering the fatty acid composition of the oil. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.