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Optimization Vacuum Frying Eggplant Slices
Optimization Vacuum Frying Eggplant Slices
Optimization Vacuum Frying Eggplant Slices
ISSN: 0378-1844
interciencia@ivic.ve
Asociación Interciencia
Venezuela
Torres, José D.; Alvis, Armando; Acevedo, Diofanor; Montero, Piedad M.; Tirado, Diego F.
OPTIMIZATION OF VACUUM FRYING CONDITIONS OF EGGPLANT (Solanum
melongena L.) SLICES BY RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY
Interciencia, vol. 42, núm. 10, octubre, 2017, pp. 683-691
Asociación Interciencia
Caracas, Venezuela
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OPTIMIZATION OF VACUUM FRYING CONDITIONS OF
EGGPLANT (Solanum melongena L.) SLICES BY RESPONSE SURFACE
METHODOLOGY
José D. Torres, Armando Alvis, Diofanor Acevedo, Piedad M. Montero and Diego F. Tirado
SUMMARY
Due to the global trend to consume low-fat products, efforts minance (L*) decreased with increasing temperature and frying
are being made to reduce oil uptake in fried products. In this time in all processed samples. Oil uptake, color change (∆E)
paper, the effect of pretreatments and parameters of the vacu- and breaking force increased significantly with the increase of
um frying process on quality attributes of purple creole egg- these same factors. The highest desirability (0.73) was obtained
plant slices is presented. A lab-scale vacuum fryer was used in blanched samples treated at 130°C during 210s. The opti-
to perform vacuum frying at a maximum pressure of 30kPa. mum values in responses were: moisture 64.77%, oil 3.89%,
Numerical optimization was carried out using the response ∆E 16.67, luminosity 82.59, breaking force 0.96N, color 4.65,
surface methodology (RSM) through a randomized Box-Behnk- odor 4.06, taste 4.25 and greasiness 4.35. The correlation coef-
en experimental design, with three factors: frying temperature ficients R2 for the response variables indicated a good fit of the
(120, 130 and 140°C), frying time (120, 210, and 300s) and data to second-order regression models. Vacuum frying is an
pretreatment (control, blanching and drying), which were es- alternative to process eggplant slices with low-oil content and
tablished through preliminary tests. Moisture content and lu- high acceptability.
Introduction combined with other culinary oil is submitted to high tem- of water, allowing the remov-
presentations (Lo Scalzo peratures in the presence of al of water from the product
Eggplant (Solanum melon- et al., 2016). water and air, which leads to at a higher rate (Mariscal and
gena L.) is a hor ticultural Frying is one of the most the formation of a wide vari- Bouchon, 2008).
species with high nutritional popular and important meth- ety of compounds through Air absence during vacuum
value, since it is rich in vita- ods of food processing around hydrolytic, thermic and oxida- frying can inhibit lipid oxida-
mins and phenolic compounds the globe (Tirado et al., 2013; tive reactions (Dueik and tion and darkening of fruits
in the flesh, and anthocyanins 2015). It can be defined as a Bouchon, 2011). The use of and vegetables (Shy u and
in the peel, all with antioxi- special type of cooking by oil vacuum is an alternative to Hwang, 2001; Shy u et al.,
dant properties (Aramendiz- immersion at a temperature improve quality of products 2005). Therefore, dehydrated
Tatis et al., 2010). Eggplant is above the boiling point of during deep fat fr ying food produced by vacuum
one of the most abundantly water (Tirado et al., 2012). (Garayo and Moreira, 2002). frying can exhibit a crunchy
grown vegetables in the During the process, foods ex- In the vacuum frying process- texture, suitable color and
Colombian Caribbean Region, perience starch gelatinization, es, foods are submerged into flavor, and appropriate nutri-
especially in Cordoba, Sucre protein denaturation and other oil in a her metic system ent retention (Da Silva and
and Bolívar depar tments changes in microstructure, where pressure is decreased Moreira, 2008; Diamante
(Correa et al., 2010). It can be physical and organoleptic below atmospheric levels. et al., 2012; Šumić et al.,
consumed dried, cooked, as properties (Pedreschi, 2012). This makes it possible to re- 2016). Some authors suggest
paste, pickled, and fried or During atmospheric frying, duce the boiling temperature that evaporated water from
KEYWORDS / Moisture Loss / Oil Uptake / Optimization / Quality Attributes / Solanum melongena L. / Vacuum Frying /
Received: 01/26/2017. Modified: 09/27/2017. Accepted: 10/05/2017.
José D. Torres. Food Engineer, Uni- (Univalle), Colombia. Resear- Salle, Colombia. Specialist in Engineering, Universidad Com-
versidad de Cartagena (Unicar- cher, Unicórdoba, Colombia. Food Science and Technology, plutense de Madrid, Spain.
tagena), Colombia. M.Sc. Agro- Diofanor Acevedo. Food Engi- UNAL, Colombia. M.Sc. In Researcher, Unicar tagena,
Food Sciences, Universidad de neer and Pharmaceutical Che- Food Science and Technology, Colombia. Address: Grupo de
Córdoba (Unicórdoba), Colom- mist, Unicartagena, Colombia. Universidad de Zulia, Vene- Investigación Nutrición, Salud
bia. Ph.D. student in Engi- Specialist in Food Science and z uela. Ph.D. in Sciences, y Calidad ( N USCA), Uni-
neering Sciences, Ponti-ficia Technology, Universidad Nacio- Universidad Rafael Belloso cartagena. Ave. del Consulado,
Universidad Católica de Chile. nal de Colombia (U NAL), Chacín, Venezuela. Researcher, calle 30 Nº 48-152. Campus
Armando Alvis. Food Engineer, Colombia. Ph.D. In Food Engi- Unicartagena, Colombia. Piedra de Bolívar. Cartagena,
Universidad INCCA de Colom- neering, Univalle, Colombia. Diego F. Tirado. (Corresponding Colombia. e-mail: dtiradoa@
bia. Specialist in Educational Researcher, Unicartagena, author). Food Engineer and unicartagena.edu.co
Management, UNICÓRDOBA, Colombia. M.Sc. in Environmental En-
Colombia. Ph.D. in Food Engi- Piedad M. Montero. Food En- gineering, Unicartagena, Colom-
neering, Universidad del Valle gineer, Universidad de la bia. Ph.D. student in Chemical
food during deep frying is to- ments are useful to improve several independent varia- Materials and methods
tally replaced by oil that is and control oil uptake, obtain- bles (Esan et al., 2015; Abtahi
accumulated in the cr ust, ing suitable textures, promoting et al., 2016; Yuksel and Sample preparation and
which would be the way how sugar lixiviation and air re- Kayacier, 2016). storage conditions
absorption takes place but, so moval from tissues. It is im- So far, no vacuum frying
far, the mechanisms have not portant to have adequate infor- process for eggplant has been Fresh eggplant (S. melonge-
been fully clarif ied (Zhang mation and methods for moni- reported in the literature, de- na L.), variety creole purple
et al., 2016). An alternative to toring the process and to en- spite the importance of this with yellow seeds, character-
reduce surface oil uptake in sure the quality of products type of research for the devel- ized in a previous work by
vacuum-fried products is the under vacuum fr ying. Nu- opment of healthy low-oil con- Aramendiz-Tatis et al., (2010)
use of pretreatments such as merical optimization by means tent foods. This becomes of was used in this study. The
blanching, vacuum or micro- of the response surface meth- special interest since this vege- fruits were purchased in the
wave drying, osmotic dehydra- odology (RSM) makes it possi- table is part of the gastronomic Central Market of Cartagena
tion, freezing and edible coat- ble to find appropriate condi- culture of the Colombian de Indias, Colombia, selected
ings, and post-treatments in- tions for food processing with- Caribbean Region. The main according to size uniformity
cluding hot air dr ying and out increasing the cost of ex- objective of this study was to and verifying that there were
centrifugation ( Nunes and periments. It also improves optimize the vacuum frying no diseases or external defects
Moreira, 2009). Pedreschi processes in which the desired conditions of pretreated egg- due to mishandling. The raw
(2012) claims that pretreat- responses are inf luenced by plant slices by RSM. material was stored at 4ºC in a
Figure 1. Effect of temperature and frying time on moisture loss of eggplant slices. : 120ºC, : 130ºC and :140ºC. Means ±standard deviation
of three replicates.
found to be always higher with temperature and frying time. temperatures and frying times, statistically significant (p<0.05),
increasing temperatures and They indicated that oil uptake the lowest levels of L* were especially for slices processed
frying times (p<0.05). Final oil was significantly related to the observed in dried samples, fol- during 120s at 120ºC. Results
content in control samples was f inal moisture content. lowed by control slices and obtained with respect to ΔE in
higher than in slices submitted However, this conclusion does then those that experienced control slices and vacuum pre-
to blanching and drying at all not match the results obtained blanching. Eggplant slices fried treated slices agreed with those
temperatures and frying times. by Zhang et al., (2016), who at 140ºC for 300s under all repor ted by Garayo and
This could have been caused studied the potato frying pro- treatments exhibited the lowest Moreira (2002) and Esan et al.
by the high porosity of egg- cess and reported that the final L* values. These results indi- (2015). These authors indicated
plant, and the greater availabil- moisture content exerted no cate that non-enzymatic dark- that development of color
ity of spaces in which free statistically significant effect ening reactions took place at a during vacuum frying takes
water was kept in the samples. on oil uptake. The present higher rate when the process place after the product has ex-
This water was vaporized by study provided new, convincing time and temperature was in- perienced a proper drying pro-
the high temperature and then information that aims to clarify creased, regardless of whether cess. On the other hand, Dueik
escaped allowing higher oil the existing relation between or not pretreatment is applied. and Bouchon (2011) found that
inlet. Blanched and dried slices initial moisture and oil uptake On the other hand, Figure 4 time and temperature are the
exhibited lower oil absorption during the frying process. So illustrates color changes (ΔE) factors with the greatest influ-
rate under all experimental far, this relation has not been experienced by control and ence on ΔE. This phenomenon
conditions of time and tem- completely elucidated and it pretreated eggplant slices. The is caused by Maillard reac-
perature. In the case of drying, represents the basis for intro- most notorious ΔE were ob- tions, which depend on the
the low initial water content in ducing a specific pre-drying ser ved in both control and content of reducing sugars and
samples could be responsible strategy into the frying pro- dried samples fried at 140ºC amino acids or proteins on the
for this behavior. During cesses of the food industry. during 300s. Slices subjected to surface. Shyu et al. (2005) ob-
bleaching at 90ºC for 2min, blanching showed a lower vari- served that ΔE of carrot chips
perhaps partial cooking was Color parameters. Figure 3 ation of ΔE, which was increased with increasing
promoted in the eggplant struc- shows the effect of temperature
ture, sealing the pores around and time on lightness (L*)
the matrices, which in turn changes in vacuum-fried egg-
could have created a protective plant slices. On the CIEL*a*b
barrier that prevented excessive scale, Lightness represents a
oil absorption. The oil uptake numerical parameter that indi-
process within the eggplant cates clarity at values close to
slices was similar to those re- 100º and darkness when values
por ted by Shyu and Hwang tend to 0º. This scale is used
(2001) in apple chips, Reis as an indicator of how color
et al. (2008) in potato sticks reactions develop in processed
and Moreira et al. (2009) in foods. In this work, it was
apple chips and vacuum-fried found that all samples and pre-
potatoes. treatments involving high tem-
Finally, Shyu et al., (2005) peratures and long times
observed that oil content in showed a significant decrease Figure 3. Effect of temperature and vacuum frying time on lightness of
car rot chips increased with in L* (p<0.05). At the same eggplant slices. Means ±standard deviation of three replicates.
Figure 4. Effect of temperature and vacuum frying time on color chan- tistically significant increase variables in the experimental
ges of eggplant slices. Means ±standard deviation of three replicates. (p<0.05) with increasing time design: moisture loss, oil con-
and temperature. This was at- tent, lightness, color change,
tributed to changes experienced breaking force and sensor y
temperature (between 70 and 2012). Šumić et al. (2016) re- by the product, such as partial perception (color, odor, flavor
110ºC) and frying times (be- ported that the evaporation pro- cooking of structure and a high and greasiness) after the vacu-
tween 300 and 1800s). Varia- cess of water molecules causes moisture loss. Harder, crunchier um frying process of eggplant
tion of these parameters be- a volume reduction by dehydra- eggplant slices were obtained at slices. On the other hand,
came evident at 100ºC. This tion of the microstructure and the end of the process thanks to Table IV shows the regression
was attributed to the instability increases structural porosity. this set of conditions. The ob- coefficients obtained for each
of carotenoids above 100ºC. Numerous holes, clefts and tained results are consistent second-order polynomial to
cracks appear at the crust ma- with those observed by Dueik which the experimental data
Breaking force. Table II inclu- trix, and they are responsible of et al. (2010) when they studied was adjusted. Their respective
des the variations of breaking the higher surface hardness of texture changes in carrot chips. coefficients of determination
force (N) in the vacuum-fried the product. Garayo and Mo- They reported an initial soften- (R 2) are also shown, as calcu-
eggplant slices. It was observed reira (2002) and Da Silva and ing, which was followed by a lated by analysis of variance.
that control, blanched and Moreira (2008) observed that final hardening as a product of R 2 ranged from 0.75 for ∆E to
dried samples exhibited a sig- vacuum-fried potato chips pre- the progressive development of 0.99 for the breaking force.
nif icant increase in the re- sented higher contraction than a dehydrated crust. At the be- The statistical analysis indicat-
sponse of breaking force atmospherically fried potato. ginning of the frying process, ed that regression models were
(p<0.05) at high values of time This seems to indicate that the texture could become softer due adequate to explain the data.
and temperature. Such phenom- crust is easily formed at atmo- to the combined effects of loss These models are of a predic-
enon could have been caused spheric pressure, and it prevents of cell integrity, free diffusion tive type and can be used to
by a large formation of crust the achievement of higher con- of cell content in the tissue and foretell responses according to
due to microstructural changes traction levels in potato slices. reduction of cell adhesion. Once different changes in factors
in the tissues of fried products The determination of the a certain amount of time had levels.
(Garcia-Segovia et al., 2016). breaking force represents a passed, food would increase its The moisture content of egg-
Also, these changes in hard- measure of how crunchy a chip hardness due to the dehydration plant slices was significantly
ness are attributed to dehydra- is. Low values of breaking of external cells and formation affected by temperature (X1),
tion (Oginni et al., 2015). force indicate a high level of of a crust. A final stage of op- followed by pretreatment (X 3)
The texture resulting after this texture attribute. In their timization was performed to the and frying time (X 2). This in-
the vacuum frying process is a research, Shyu and Hwang processing conditions in order dicated that temperature chang-
consequence of changes experi- (2001) and Shuy et al. (2005) to establish the best physical es and previous treatments
enced by food composition observed that by increasing the and sensory responses of vacu- were the main factors, which
(Dueik and Bouchon, 2011). oil temperature, lower values of um-fried eggplant slices. need to be controlled during
Proteins and carbohydrates were breaking force were obtained. vacuum frying eggplant slices,
mainly modified due to the heat The same happened when in- Numerical optimization of the since the product experiences
transferred to the sample (Esan creasing vacuum level. This vacuum frying of eggplant dehydration at a high rate. The
et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2016). tendency was not evidenced in slices estimated effects of the model
This caused the formation of a the results obtained in the cur- also indicated that the quadrat-
crust, which provided crunchi- rent study. In fact, the values of Table III presents the averag- ic interactions of tempera-
ness in the product (Pedreschi, breaking force showed a sta- es obtained for the response ture-time (X 1 and X 2) and
TABLE IV
ADJUSTED REGRESSION COEFFICIENTS
Moisture Oil Breaking
Coefficients Lightness ∆E Color Odor Flavor Greasiness
(%) (%) force (N)
β0 494.06 664.52 -599.17 406.96 50.02 84.14 43.36 23.84 -5.05
β1 -1.17 -12.39 13.18 -6.48 9.79 -1.29 -0.63 -0.34 0.12
β2 -1.03 0.56 -0.57 -0.15 1.54x10 -2 -5.08x10 -3 3.82x10 -4 2.62x10 -2 -4.66x10 -3
β3 -136.53 4.17 -22.55 20.88 -1.43 5.92 0.97 0.24 1.76
β11 2.0x10 -2 6.04x10 -2 -6.52x10 -2 2.73x10 -2 3.35x10 -3 4.95x10 -3 2.38x10 -3 1.22x10 -3 -4.92x10 -4
β12 1.02x10 -2 -5.05x10 -3 6.08x10 -3 1.01x10 -3 -2.11x10 -2 4.16x10 -5 2.22x10 -5 -1.41x10 -3 2.77x10 -6
β13 1.31 -7.01x10 -2 0.39 -0.18 -1.03x10 -3 -5.52x10 -3 -3.53x10 -3 2.32x10 -2 5.41x10 -4
β22 -1.51x10 -2 6.23x10 -4 -6.84x10 -4 -2.42x10 -5 2.59x10 -5 -1.16x10 -5 3.18x10 -6 -1.97x10 -4 1.46x10 -5
β23 1.72x10 -2 -2.27x10 -2 -1.12x10 -2 0.025 1.38x10 -3 2.22x10 -3 -2.05x10 -3 1.38x10 -4 -9.72x10 -3
β33 -10.55 1.58 -5.61 -4.51x10 -2 0.32 -1.51 -0.21 -0.85 -0.24
R2 0.87 0.82 0.79 0.75 0.99 0.98 0.96 0.86 0.97
temperature-pretreatment (X1 Temperature-time interaction to the second-order regression oil content of 3.89%), ∆E of
and X3) were highly significant exerted a highly significant model. Therefore, changes of 16.67, and breaking force of
for moisture (p<0.05). R 2 of effect on the change of color breaking force that are experi- 0.96N. On the other hand, the
the quadratic polynomial was in the pretreated and control enced by the product can be maximized responses were
0.87, indicating a suitable ad- slices. This suggested that properly described by using lightness (82.59), color (4.65),
justment of the experimental egg plant tended to rapidly the obtained reg ression. odor (4.06), f lavor (4.25) and
data. This model was appropri- change color during deep fat Changes in sensory properties greasiness (4.35).
ate for describing the behavior frying. It is therefore neces- such as color, odor, flavor and Finally, Figure 5 shows the
of water loss within eggplant sary to implement an adequate g reasiness were generally behavior of response surfaces
slices. Oil content of vacu- control of time and tempera- highly influenced by tempera- for eggplant slices submitted to
um-fried eggplant slices was ture conditions, in order to ture and pretreatments (X1 and blanching during the optimiza-
significantly affected by both avoid u nwanted sensor y X 3). The best conditions were tion of vacuum frying. Results
linear and quadratic interac- changes in the product. The obtained at 130 ºC and a of frying optimization of egg-
tions of temperature (X1, X12; obtained determination R 2 was blanching pret reat ment. R 2 plant are similar to those re-
p<0.05). It was also observed 0.79 for lightness and 0.75 for were 0.98, 0.96, 0.86 and 0.97, ported by Akinpelu et al.
that quadratic time (X22) exert- ∆E. Acceptable levels of cor- respectively. This showed that (2014), who based on the conve-
ed a highly significant effect, relation can thus be achieved data gathered from the senso- nience found frying conditions
which indicated that an in- when describing the behavior ry panel successfully adjusted of 133ºC and 6min for banana
crease in frying time affected of these responses. Brea- to the quadratic model. The chips. On the other hand, Esan
oil uptake. A R 2 of 0.82 was king force was significantly process of multiple-response et al. (2015) found optimal
obtained, indicating that the affected by both linear and numerical optimization yielded conditions for frying at 108ºC
implemented model successful- quadratic correlations of tem- a maximum convenience score and 9min, with maximum con-
ly described behavior of oil perature (X1, X12), which indi- of 0.73 for the following set of venience of 0.61. Similarly,
uptake in vacuum-fried slices. cated that eggplant slices re- experimental factors: frying Abtahi et al. (2016) found con-
Lightness and color changes quire higher values of strength temperature (130ºC), frying ditions to be 153.46ºC and
were significantly affected by to be broken after losing large time (210s) and blanching. 1.03min. In general, most of
temperature and pretreatment amou nts of water. A R 2 of Optimum values of the mini- the work relating to the opti-
(X 1 and X 3) in both linear 0.99 revealed a suitable adjust- mized responses were ob- mization of vacuum fr ying
and quad ratic interactions. ment of the experimental data tained at moisture of 64.77%, processes focuses on deciding