Effect of enzymatic pretreatment on the physical quality of plantain (Musa ssp., group AAB) employing airflow reversal drying

Effects of sucrose and sodium chloride pretreatments on cassava and plantain chips fried in CLA-enriched soybean oil: an analysis of acrylamide content, microstructure, and other physical properties

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effect of soaking plantain and cassava chips in sucrose or sodium chloride (NaCl) on their physical properties and acrylamide content after frying in Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA)-enriched soybean oil. Plantain and cassava were cut into 1 mm thick slices and soaked for 20 min in a solution of 30% sucrose or 3% NaCl at 40 °C, separately. Soaking in sucrose and NaCl had no significant effect (p < 0.05) on water loss, porosity, hardness, or microstructure. The acrylamide content ranged from 634 to 3177 µg/kg. The use of CLA-enriched oil had no significant effect (p < 0.05) on the physical characteristics evaluated in this study. Frying reduced the CLA content in the chips from an initial 31.8% in the oil to 22.25 and 21.69% in plantain and cassava chips, respectively.

Influence of pretreatments on oil absorption of plantain and cassava chips

The objective was to evaluate the effect of pretreatments of CaCl₂ and osmotic dehydration (OD) on oil absorption in plantain and cassava chips. Plantain and cassava slices (1 mm thickness and 35 mm diameter) were prepared. Pretreatment with and without 5% CaCl₂ solution before applying OD with sucrose solutions at 30 and 45%, and NaCl at 3 and 6% in a product/solution ratio of 1:25, at 40 °C were employed. OD kinetics and diffusivity were estimated by Page's model and Fick's law, respectively. Best OD treatments for plantain chips were 45% sucrose with CaCl₂ and 6% NaCl without CaCl₂. However, for cassava chips, the best OD treatments were 45% sucrose without CaCl₂ and 3% NaCl with CaCl₂. Page's model predicted the OD experimental results with an R² = 0.94-0.97. Effective diffusivity of water (EDW) and effective diffusivity of solids (EDS) for osmo-dehydrated cassava samples, with and without CaCl₂, decreased as the concentration of the osmotic solutions was increased. However, in general, the inverse effect was obtained for plantain samples for EDW and EDS. Use of CaCl₂ when applying OD reduced EDW and EDS in plantain and cassava chips. In general, it was observed that when increasing the concentration of the osmotic solution, oil absorption capacity decreased. Treatments that showed the lowest oil absorption were 45% sucrose OD in plantain chips pretreated with CaCl₂ (11.49%) and fresh cassava chips with 45% sucrose OD (10.72%). The results and effectiveness will depend on food, process conditions and type of osmotic agent.