Effect of Frying Treatments on Texture and Colour Parameters of Deep Fat Fried Yellow Fleshed Cassava Chips

Effects of frying treatments on texture (hardness) and colour parameters ( , , , Δ ) during deep fat frying of yellow fleshed cassava root slices (TMS 01/1371) were investigated. Slices (dimension of 40 mm × 25 mm × 3 mm) were divided into three portions and subjected to vacuum frying (fresh slices) and atmospheric frying (fresh and predried slices) and equivalent thermal driving forces (ETDF) of 60 ∘ C, 70 ∘ C, and 80 ∘ C were maintained during frying. The quality attributes investigated were best preserved in vacuum fried chips. The overall colour change in chips fried under vacuum conditions at 118 ∘ C and 8 min was the least (21.20) compared to fresh and atmospherically predried ones (16.69 and 14.81, resp.). A sharp reduction in the breaking force was obtained for all frying treatments after 8 min and this effect was the least in vacuum fried chips. First-order kinetics modeled the changes in quality attributes for all the temperatures investigated. Rate constants (min −1 ) obtained for vacuum frying were almost equal to that of atmospheric frying while activation energies for hardness and colour change were 53.30 and 467.11 KJ/mol, respectively. Quality attributes studied were best preserved during vacuum frying