Frying coated products

Special Challenges in Frying Coated Products Several products are easy to handle such as potato chips, tortilla chips, com chips, and so on. On the other hand, the coated products are different and require more involved handling before and during frying. 

Both direct and indirect heated fryers can be used for frying coated products equipped with proper feed and conveyor systems. 

Albert, S. and Mittal, G. S. (2002). Comparative evaluation of edible coatings to reduce fat uptake in a deep-fat fried cereal product. Food Res. Int. 35, 445-458. 

A typical restaurant fryer operates at 335-375°F (168-190.6°C). A measured amount of food is placed in the basket. The basket is lowered into the oil, which is already heated to the desired temperature. The oil temperature in the fryer drops immediately, and then it gradually recovers. The recovery time for the oil temperature within a specific time is critical for French fries, coated vegetables, and so on to achieve the desired product texture, flavor, and appearance. However, the recovery time for the fryer oil temperature is especially critical for chicken, fish, and other meat products, where the interior of the product must reach a specific temperature to prevent food-bome diseases associated with the meat and poultry products. 

Batter-coated fried foods have become popular in the restaurant and domestic uses in the United States. Flash frying has been used to deliver good stable batter-coated products. These are coated shrimp, fish, com dogs, and fried chicken and are popular restaurant items. All of these products are manufactured on large scales and distributed in frozen state. The frozen products are fried directly out of the freezer and served. 

Specially designed conveyor that dredges the frying pan to remove the accumulated solids or sludge from coated products. 

These products are batter coated and par-fried for the distribution to the restaurants, food services and the super markets. The products are frozen in blast freezers using liquid nitrogen immediately after frying. The products are shipped in freezer-tmcks and then stored in freezers at the destination (storage temperature —5 to — 10°F (—21 to 23°C). The products are taken out of the freezer and fried without thawing them. 

All of these products are non-floating type except the tempura coated product. The tempura product fryer has a submerger to keep the product under the oil surface. The others are carried on conveying belt. All of these fryer conveyors have the bottom dredging capability. The sludge from the bottom of the frying pan is collected into a sump. The solids are separated in a series of paper and metal screen filters. The filtered oil is put back into the fryer continuously. 

It is important to set the outer surface of the coating in hot oil before the product touches the internal conveyor of the fryer. This zone is called the free-fry zone, which is located at the beginning of the fryer. This applies to coated products, potato chips, and various other fried products. This prevents sticking of the product to the fryer conveyor or to each other (clumping) before the product reaches the frying zone. The free-fry zone and the in-feed system vary with the product to be fried. 

French fries are similar to fish or meat patties in physical behavior in that the product does not float. French fries are fried with and without the coating. The coated products have become popular. There are dilferent cuts. The straight cut is most common. The other types of cut are Julienne and spiral. 

The fines accumulate in the fryer pan during frying. These are primarily carbohydrate material (can be proteinaceous material from poultry, meat, or fish). The crumbs get charred during frying. Thus, accumulation of fines can darken the fryer oil. This leads to darker colored product with burnt taste. This is why it is necessary to remove the fines from the fryer either continuously or at a certain frequency. The coated products generate a lot of fines accumulated at the bottom of the pan. 

An interesting approach to reduce the health risks of consumer foods is to reduce the overall fat content of fried food. Cellulose derivatives such as CMC, MC, and HPMC are used in the batter or breadcrumbs to reduce oil absorption during frying (e.g., in doughnuts, fried dough products, structured, extruded, and coated products). The following example highlights the ability of HPMC to reduce the fat content of French fries. 

Examples of some products typically dried on single pass/multiple-stage dryers are french fries, coated cereals, nuts, fruits and vegetables, some synthetic rubbers, etc. 

Tetrafluoroethene polymerizes to form the slippery polymer that is commonly known as Teflon . Teflon M is used as a non-stick coating in frying pans, among other uses. Classify the following polymerization reaction, and name the product. (The letter n indicates that many monomers are involved in the reaction.)... 

Garcia, M. A., Ferrero, C., Bertola, N., Martino, M., and Zaritzky, N. (2002). Edible coatings from cellulose derivatives to reduce oil uptake in fried products. Innovative Food Sci. Emerg. Technol. 3, 391-397. 

Mallikarjunan, P., Chinnan, M. S., Balasubramaniam, V. M., and Phillips, R. D. (1997). Edible coatings for deep-fat frying of starchy products. Lebensmittel-Wissenschaft Technologic. 30, 709-714. 

Only use in contact with high-fat foods when the manufacturer s advice states it is suitable for this. Examples of high-fat foods include some types of cheese, raw meats with a layer of fat fried meats, pastry products, and cakes with butter icing or chocolate coatings. 

---