Influence of Reducing Sugars and Amino Acids in the Color Development of Fried Potatoes

Abstract

ABSTRACT Color development during potato frying was studied. Increments of reducing sugars led to increase in color of fried potatoes. For L (luminosity) between 60–51, corresponding to a reducing sugar content of 120–140 mg %, an acceptable color was obtained. Both amino acids and reducing sugars participated in the color development of potato during frying, with the amount of reducing sugars being the limiting factor. Fructose yielded the highest browning followed by glucose. Sucrose addition caused practically no change in the final color of the fried potato. At low content of reducing sugars the reaction followed first‐order kinetics, the activation energy, Ea, being equal to 31 Kcal mol ‐1 .