Deep fat frying is intended to make food more palatable and tasteful, and, In addition, at the same time fried foods are usually very safe from a preservation due to thermal destruction of microorganisms and enzymes.
However, a limitation is the high fat content of the products, which has been linked to obesity and many other diseases associated with high calorie diets. Hence, one of improvements of deep fat fried foods has been to obtain products with a low amount of fat and suitable organoleptic characteristics that allow its acceptability.
| The Main Classes of Fried Products | ||
|---|---|---|
| Class | Products | Fat Content (%) |
| (Potato) Chips | Potato chips of various shapes and flavors, tortilla chips, and corn chips | 25–40 |
| Extruded snacks | Snacks of various shapes, flavors and texture, prepared with cereal, potato, or legume flour | 20–40 |
| Nuts | Nuts or nut mixtures with legumes and flavorings | 5-6* |
| Bakery products | Doughnuts and fried pies | 10-25 |
| Par-fried frozen food | French fries, fish, chicken, and pancakes | 5-7 |
| Food-service products | Chicken, fish, meat, and potatoes | Broad range |
| * Exchanged with natural oil. | ||
| Source: Frying of Foods [Vassiliki Oreopoulou, Magdalini Krokida, and Dimitris Marinos-Kouris] | ||
Deep fat Fried foods are still as popular as consumed all over the world, taste and smell good and have a rich mouth feel and crispy bite.
Technologies development has been prompt produce deep fried foods with lower fat but still retain the taste and texture consumers enjoy now. carefully select the raw materials, low temperature blanching, hot air drying to remove surface moisture or/ and batter before frying and exact fryer volume design with a desired oil turn over rate are all the representative improved unit process to reduce oil pickup operations.
Nowadays, alternatively, vacuum frying is becoming the latest technology in fruit and vegetable crisp chips application to reduce the oil uptake and the carcinogen acrylamide.
They are not bad in their own right. Don’t worry too much, enjoy it, nothing more.