Oil uptake in deep-fat frying: review

Fried products contribute to a significant amount of the overall oil consumed in the western world's diet. Fat intake has been identified as one of the most important factors contributing to several health risks. The desire to consume more nutritious and healthier foods has created significant pressure on the industry to reduce fat of fried products. Yet, lipids have still not been matched in their unique fonctionality and universal appeal. To address these risks, concentrated research efforts have focused on reducing fat absorption during the frying process. The objective of this review is to summarise the data available, and to focus on the mechanisms and factors affecting oil uptake during deep-fat frying. A holistic approach integrating the complexity of the process and its mechanisms is adopted, highlighting some of the possible factors that play a significant role in oil absorption. Some of the multiplicity interrelationships among three domains: oil, product and process are discussed. The main conclusions highlight the fact that oil uptake mechanism is an extremely complex process still not completely understood. Additional studies focusing on the microstructure changes occurring in the product during deep-fat frying are recommended in order to further elucidate the various mechanisms affecting oil uptake, and to provide the means and the tools required to control the various processes that govern the phenomena