Adhesion of Dry Seasoning Particles onto Tortilla Chip

Abstract

In a wind tunnel experiment, the amount of seasoning retained by a fried tortilla chip when exposed to air at different flow rates (0.516 to 1.115 m/s) and angles of inclination (0° to 60°) was measured. The inferred adhesion force of seasoning particle and chip surface using boundary layer theory increased with seasoning particle size (32 to 300 μm), oil content of tortilla chip (24% to 32%), viscosity (55.9 to 72.2 cP), and surface tension (27.5 to 34.1 mN/m) of oil and was in the range of 1.6 x 10 - 9 to 3.3 x 10 - 7 N. The calculated values of adhesion force accounting for van der Waals, electrostatic, and capillary forces showed the same qualitative trend as the experimental data.