Modelling the kinetics of water loss during potato frying with a compartmental dynamic model

The complexity of the frying process impairs the development of mechanistic models to describe water losses. Empirical models though lacking a theoret ical basis, may provide a suitable and simpler alternative. In this work it was found that a two parallel compartments model (core an edge compartment s), with a time-dependent boundary condition, could be successfully applied for this purpose. The model showed a good fit to the experimental data for a variety of experimental conditions tested: potato geometry and size, tem perature, oil type and oil use. The core compartment was found to contain a bout 63% of the initial potato water content. The rate constants of two-com partments were very sensitive to slice thickness, whereas temperature affec ted only the rate constant of the core compartment. No significant effects were detected in terms of oil type or oils use. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science L td. All right reserved.