Deep frying : from mechanisms to product quality

Deep frying is one of the most used methods in the food processing industry. Though practically any food can be fried, French fries are probably the most well-known deep fried products. The popularity of French fries stems from their unique taste and texture, a crispy outside with a mealy soft interior, but also because of the ease and speed of preparation. However, despite being a practical and easy method, the fundamental phenomena that occur during frying are very complex. This thesis aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of the frying of French fries. This was done at the product level, with regards to heat transfer, moisture loss, oil uptake and crust formation, and at the process level, which encompasses the oil movement in a frying unit and the consequent oil-fry interactions. Firstly a numerical model was developed to describe the water evaporation during frying (Chapter 2). Though various models exist for describing moisture loss, they all use constant values for the heat transfer coefficient. However, the heat transfer coefficient actually varies greatly due to the varying degrees of turbulence, induced by the vapour bubbles escaping from the fry surface. Therefore, the model in this thesis incorporated an evaporation rate dependent heat transfer coefficient. Other than the varying heat transfer coefficient, the model was heat transfer dependent, with a sharp moving evaporation boundary and Darcy flow describing the flow of water vapour through the crust. The model was successfully validated against experimental results for moisture loss and temperature profiles in the fry. For oil uptake during frying, a pore inactivation model from membrane technology was adopted (Chapter 3). In membranes, pores will inactivate when the transmembrane pressure becomes too low. In fries, this can be translated as pores in the crust inactivating when the evaporation rate becomes too low. As pores stop expelling water vapour, oil can migrate into the fry. The model also to