Yield, quality characteristics and nutritional profile of dehydrated chips prepared from potatoes astored at low high temperature

Abstract

Yield, quality attributes, processing and nutritional losses were determined during the preparation of dehydrated chips from seven Indian and five exotic cultivars after 100 days of storage in the cold store (3-4°C) and in an evaporatively cooled store (15-29°C, RH 80-94%). Yield and quality attributes such as oil uptake, colour, texture and taste of fried dehydrated chips were affected by the cultivar and storage temperature. The average yield of dehydrated chips was 22% higher and their oil uptake about 50% lower when made from potatoes stored in evaporatively cooled store as compared to the cold store. The processing quality of the product was adversely affected when prepared from the tubers stored at low temperature. Colour appearance, taste and texture of the fried dehydrated chips prepared from all the cultivars stored in the evaporatively cooled store were acceptable as against unacceptably dark colour and bitter taste of chips made from cold stored potatoes. Among cultivars stored in the evaporatively cooled store, exotic cultivars, in general, gave higher yield and produced better colour quality chips in comparison to Indian varieties. The chip colour was positively correlated to the reducing sugar content of tubers as well as dehydrated chips. The average per cent losses in reducing sugars, sucrose, soluble protein, free amino acids, total phenols, tyrosine, vitamin C, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium were 26, 78, 39, 66, 70, 43, 46, 46, 48, 80 and 68, respectively during preparation of dehydrated chips from evaporatively cooled stored tubers as against 27, 63, 29, 35, 92, 54, 66, 44, 44, 81 and 70, respectively from the tubers stored in cold store. The study suggests storage of potatoes in the evaporatively cooled store up to 100 days to obtain high yield of good quality dehydrated chips with reasonable retention of nutrients.