Effects of ultrasound pretreatments on the kinetics of moisture loss and oil uptake during deep fat frying of sweet potato (Ipomea batatas)

The possibility of ultrasound assisted pretreatments of sweet potato to lower the moisture content and oil uptake during deep fat frying and its effects on the mass transfer rate was investigated. Sweet potato samples prior to frying were immersed in distilled water with ultrasound (UD), osmotic dehydration without ultrasound (OD) and ultrasound assisted osmotic dehydration (UOD). Ultrasound probe having frequency of 28 kHz at 300 W maximum power and time of 30 min was used for the pretreatment. The control (without pretreatment) and the pretreated samples were fried using sunflower oil at temperature of 130, 150 and 170 °C for 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 min. The first order kinetic model was used for the mass transfer rate for moisture loss and oil uptake. The lowest moisture content was found in fried samples pretreated in UOD and OD while the lowest oil uptake was obtained in fried samples pretreated in UD having 65.11 and 71.47% oil reduction at temperature of 150 and 170 °C, respectively, compared to the untreated sample. The k values of all pretreated samples were higher than that of the untreated at 150 and 170 °C. The highest activation energy for moisture loss was found in untreated samples while the lowest activation energy for oil uptake was found in samples pretreated in UOD. The results from this work proved that ultrasound is a good pretreatment that can be used to obtain a low moisture content and oil uptake during deep fat frying of sweet potato.Industrial relevanceUltrasound is a novel technology that is widely used in the food industries because of its numerous advantages over conventional methods. Its application in the frying of foods could also help in the reduction of oil uptake, thus making safe the consumption of fried foods. The information about frying kinetics could also help in the design and optimization of the process in the food industry.