Comparative evaluation of soybean oil-carnauba wax oleogel as an alternative to conventional oil for potato chips frying

Soybean oil was structured with carnauba wax to develop oleogels which were evaluated to fry potato chips as an alternative to deep fat frying with soybean oil. The frying conditions of chips were optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). The frying temperature (147 °C) and time (4 min) of chips were decided by assessing the physical properties of the chips (hardness, color and sensory attributes). Thereafter, a comparative study was carried out between chips fried in oil and oleogel. Compared to chips fried in oil, the chips fried in oleogel absorbed approximately 23% less oil. No negative impact on the sensory scores and fatty acid composition of the chips was observed. The peak force of oleogel fried chips was also insignificantly lower (255.7 ± 17.5 g) than oil fried chips (314.2 ± 19.3 g). The appearance (color) of the oleogel fried chips was significantly better than chips fried in oil since oleogel chips had a higher lightness value (63.53 ± 3.94) than oil chips (53.59 ± 1.31). Moreover, the redness value of oleogel chips was also lower (−2.33 ± 0.47) than chips fried in oil (1.66 ± 0.49). However, significantly higher peroxide values were observed in oleogel fried chips during the storage study, which indicates its lower stability.