Evaluation of Five Potato Varieties for Producing French Fries

Abstract

The present study was conducted on five potato varieties named Diamont, Metro, Dido, Cara and Messi used for French fries production. The results showed a significant effect of variety on gross chemical composition, dry matter, specific gravity, colour, polyphenols and ascorbic acid contents. All studied potato varieties contained considerable amounts of carbohydrates, protein, fiber and could be considered good source of Mg, Na and K. Messi variety had the highest content of dry matter being 25.27% and specific gravity of 1.083 g/cm3, on contrary to Dido variety which had the lowest dry mater and specific gravity being 16.49% and 1.061 g/cm3, respectively. Noticeable amounts of polyphenolsranged between 66.24–102.61 mg /100 g and ascorbic acid (13.9–30.83 mg/100g fresh weight) could be figured out. Colour parameters revealed that, Cara had the highest lightness. Meanwhile, the highest redness was found in Dido and Messi varieties. French fries prepared from all studied varieties were accepted by panelists for all organolepticproperties especially fries prepared from Messi and Dido varieties which possess the highest and lowest levels of dry matter. Therefore, these two varieties were selected to investigate the effect of some suggested approaches that decline oil uptake during French fries processing. The results indicated that drying under vacuum at 60°C for 0.5 and 1 hr, blanching at 95°C for 4min, after soaking in NaCl 3% for 50min, and increasing the thickness of potato sticks could significantly decrease oil uptake of potato sticks during Frech fries processing.