Influence of blanching of slices of potato varieties on chipping quality

Effect of blanching of potato slices in water at 75 degrees C for 2 min on the colour and chemical composition of fresh fried chips was investigated in 11 Indian potato var. Blanching, although, improved the chip colour in all the varieties, but the acceptable colour was achieved only in 'Kufri Chipsona-1', 'Kufri Chipsona-2', 'Kufri Chandramukhi' and 'Kufri Jyoti'. Among these, 'Kufri Chipsona-1' and 'Kufri Chipsona-2', were most suitable for chipping as these contained low levels of reducing sugars and produced high yield of chips with acceptable colour even without blanching. Chips prepared from blanched slices contained 3.6% more oil and gave lower yield in comparison to those prepared from unblanched slices. Blanching, in general, resulted in reduced crispness, inferior texture and apparent loss of natural pigments and lustre of the chips, which were, however, acceptable after spicing. Blanching reduced the content of reducing sugars, sucrose, free amino acids, total phenols, ortho-dihydroxy phenols and tyrosine by 46.9, 40.7, 55.3, 37.6, 37.8 and 29.8%, respectively.