Food Hydrocolloids 54 (2016) 211e219

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Food Hydrocolloids
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodhyd

Effect of guar gum with glycerol coating on the properties and oil
absorption of fried potato chips
Lin Yu b, Jinwei Li b, **, Shaodong Ding b, Feng Hang a, Liuping Fan a, b, *
a
b

State Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology, Technology Center, Bright Dairy & Food Co. Ltd., Shanghai 200436, China
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 12 April 2015
Received in revised form
30 August 2015
Accepted 3 October 2015
Available online 22 October 2015

Effects of guar gum with glycerol coating on the oil absorption of fried potato chips were investigated
using dye oil methods, confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and scanning electron microscopy
(SEM). The results showed that coating with guar gum and glycerol could effectively hinder the oil
absorption of fried potato chips and have no negative effects on its breaking force. Compared with
control or samples coated with guar gum, potato chips with guar gum and glycerol produced a reduction
of oil absorption by 51.8% and 34.8%, respectively. Both for control or coated potato chips, penetrated
surface oil (PSOs) was dominant in total oil (TOs), followed by structural oil (STOs) and surface oil (SOs).
Coating treatment with guar gum and glycerol could signicantly reduce the SOs and PSOs of potato
chips (P < 0.05). PSOs was the main factor which attributed to the TOs reduction of fried potato chips
after coating. CLSM photographs revealed the oil distribution pattern for control or coated sample, and
conrmed that PSOs obviously reduced after coating with guar gum and glycerol, followed by SOs. SEM
photographs indicated that guar gum, guar gum and glycerol coatings were effective in preventing oil
penetration into the potato tissue during frying process. Coating formulations not only enhance the
barrier properties of fried potato chips, but also avoid pores and cracks in the fried products with higher
toughness.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Oil absorption
Potato chips
Oil distribution
Frying
Guar gum
Glycerol
Chemical compounds studied in this article:
Water (PubChem CID: 962)
Starch (PubChem CID: 439341)
Glycerol (PubChem CID: 753)
Sudan red (PubChem CID: 5910713)
Nile Red (PubChem CID: 65182)
Petroleum (PubChem CID: 6437559)
Glucose (PubChem CID: 5793)
Oleic acid (PubChem CID: 445639)
Stearic acid (PubChem CID: 5281)
Cetylic acid (PubChem CID: 985)

1. Introduction
Frying is a cooking process to achieve desirable sensory attributes such as avor, texture and appearance. One of the most
important quality changes during the process is mass transfer,
mainly represented by water loss and oil uptake, and heat transfer
(Mellema, 2003; Vitrac, Dufour, Trystram, & Raoult-Wack, 2002).
During frying, the moisture removal inevitably results in a signicant uptake of oil which amounts to around 40% of the total food

ska, & Goubowska, 2007). High oil
product weight (Kita, Lisin
* Corresponding author. School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail address: fanliuping@jiangnan.edu.cn (L. Fan).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodhyd.2015.10.003
0268-005X/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

content greatly increase the risk of adverse health consequences

such as obesity, high blood pressure and coronary disease (Cheng,
2012; Sayon-Orea et al., 2014; Stier, 2013), thus, reducing the oil
content of fried foods is among the most important requirements.
There are lots of researches related to the reduction of oil content during frying, such as fry under suitable conditions (Kim &
Moreira, 2013), use of pre-drying before frying (Niamnuy,
Devahastin, & Soponronnarit, 2014), and use of edible coatings
(Varela & Fiszman, 2011). Kita et al. (2007) reported that oil content
of potato chips was inuenced by frying temperature and the type
of oil used for frying, but the effect of oil reduction was very limited.
Pre-drying leads to a number of physical and chemical changes of a
food material, also leads to high energy consumption and high
capital costs (Huang, Zhang, Mujumdar, & Lim, 2011). Compared to
the previous two methods, application of coatings is an alternative

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method to reduce the oil content of fried foods and have no adverse
effects.
Some edible coatings, particularly hydrophilic polymers, have
the ability to be good oxygen, carbon dioxide and lipid barriers
(Albert & Mittel, 2002), which gives them potential to decrease oil
uptake in fried products. Coatings make the surface stronger and
more brittle, with fewer small voids, which reduces water evaporation and leads to less oil uptake; also, coatings alter the waterholding capacity by trapping moisture inside and preventing the
replacement of water by oil (Mellema, 2003; Singthong &
Thongkaew, 2009). On the other hand, hydrocolloids can be used
as emulsiers in composite lms (Skurtys, 2010), the surface tension between the oil and the food could also be reduced, consequently contributed to decrease oil uptake. Thus, reducing the oil
content of fried potato chips by application of coatings is an
effective method.
Among the hydrocolloids used for coating foods for frying, the
use of guar gum has been found to be effective (Garmakhany,
Mirzaei, Nejad, & Maghsudlo, 2008; Kim, Lim, Bae, Lee, & Lee,
2011; Sothornvit, 2011). Addition of plasticizer for improving mechanical properties of biodegradable lms has been extensively
reported. This increases the percentage elongation of lms by
forming hydrogen bond with the polymer and reducing polymeric
interactions (Piermaria et al., 2011; Saurabh et al., 2013). Coating
integrity is a critical factor related to adhesion and exibility,
decreasing possible discontinuities and brittle zones (Piermaria
et al., 2011). Plasticizers, which are low molecular weight components, can improve the exibility and handling of lms, maintain
integrity and avoid pores and cracks in the fried products
(Donhowe & Fennema, 1993). Polysaccharide based lms are
commonly plasticized with polyols such as glycerol (Garcia, Ribba,
Dufresne, Aranguren, & Goyanes, 2011). The addition of glycerol as
a plasticizer might contribute improvement of lms exibility and
signicantly lower tensile strength and higher elongation at break,
which allows diminishing the oil uptake (Jouki, Khazaei,
Ghasemlou, & Hadinezhad, 2013).
Khalil (1999) reported that potato strips coated with a combination of 0.5% calcium chloride and 5% pectin had the highest
reduction of oil content, but had the highest water content as well.
Tavera-Quiroz, Urriza, Pinotti, and Bertola (2012) noted that an
edible methylcellulose coating plasticized with sorbitol on potato
chips caused an oil reduction of 30%.
Researches on the oil reduction using edible coating mainly
focused on the effects of coating on the total oil content, little to
investigated effects on the oil distribution. As a consequence, one
aim of the present study was to determine the effect of guar gum
with or without glycerol on the quality, oil fraction, oil reduction
and breaking force of potato chips. Another important aim was to
investigate oil distribution patterns of fried potato chips with or
without edible coating using dye oil method and confocal laser
scanning microscopy (CLSM). The third aim was to study the difference of potato chips microstructure with or without edible
coating by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) during frying.
2. Material and methods

for 5 min at 95
C prior to the coating application in order to

inactivate enzyme, remove surface starch, reduce sugars (glucose
et al.) and gelatinize starch, then cooled to ambient temperature
with a ow of cold water. The excess water was blotted out using
lint-free tissue paper.
Based on our previous experiments, guar gum (produced by
Henan Lubang food raw materials Co., Ltd., Henan, China) with
concentration of 1% (w/w) was prepared, and glycerol (produced by
Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China) with the
concentration of 8% (w/w) was used as plasticizer. The potato slices
of 15 g were immersed into 100 ml guar gum solution with or
without glycerol at the temperature of 40
C for 3 min. Then,
samples were drained on a wire structure to allow removal of the
excess surface solution for 20 min cooling to ambient temperature.
Each experiment was tested in triplicate.
2.2. Frying procedure
Oil dyed with Sudan red preparation: The heat resistant dyed oil
was prepared by dissolving 1 g of the fat soluble and heat resistant
stain Sudan Red I in 1 L of the frying oil. Subsequently, the solution
was diluted into different concentrations with petroleum ether (PE)
(Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China), and the
absorbance was determined at 459 nm (maximum absorbance) by
a spectrophotometer (UV2600, Shanghai Tian Mei Scientic Instruments Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China) at room temperature.
Frying procedure: Coated and uncoated (control) samples were
fried in a thermostatically temperature controlled fryer (Jintan
Precision Instruments Co., Ltd., Changzhou, China) lled with 3 L of
shortening. The potato weight/oil volume ratio was 1:30. The frying
temperature was 180
C, and the frying time was 8 min. According
to the method of Pedreschi, Cocio, Moyano, and Troncoso (2008),
20 s before ending each frying process, 0.188 L of dyed Sudan Red I
was added quickly. All fried samples were drained and cooled to
room temperature before analysis.
2.3. Analytical methods
2.3.1. Water content, solid content and starch content
The water content (Ws, %) was measured in a convective oven at
105
C until the sample mass did not change further. Ws was the
water content of chips expressed against the non-fat solid content,
calculated as follows:

Ws %

W
 100%
1  W  TO

(1)

where W (%) and TO (%) are the water content and total oil content
of the chips (wet basis). Each sample was tested at least in triplicate.
Starch content of the potato was determined according to the
National Standard GB/T 5514-2008 in China. For each coating, each
sample was tested at least in triplicate.
Solid content was calculated as follows:

Solid content %wb 100%  Initial water content % wb

(2)

2.1. Sample preparation

Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) and shortening (produced by
Jia-li Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China, the main fatty acids are oleic acid,
stearic acid and cetylic acid) were purchased from a supermarket in
Wuxi, China. The potatoes were thoroughly washed with clean tap
water, peeled and cut into thickness of 2.0 0.1 mm and diameter
of 22 mm using a manual slicing machine (Jintan Precision Instruments Co., Ltd., Changzhou, China). These slices were blanched

2.3.2. Oil content

Oil content and oil fraction (SOs, STOs, PSOs) of potato chips
were analyzed by the method of Bouchon, Aguilera, and Pyle (2003)
with a little revision.
2.3.2.1. Calibration curve. Calibration curve was used to determine
the concentration of Sudan Red I (Sigma chemicals) in the frying oil.

L. Yu et al. / Food Hydrocolloids 54 (2016) 211e219

213

With the concentration of Sudan Red I as horizontal axis (x), and

the absorbance value as vertical axis (y), the relationship between
Sudan Red I in equation solution concentration and the absorbance
values could present by y 46.816x 0.0316, the correlation coefcient R2 is 0.9982, indicated that the t function and experimental data agree well, and the experimental data can be used to
test experimental calculations.
2.3.2.2. Determination of total oil. TOs (%) was the total oil content
of chips expressed against the non-fat solid content and determined by the Soxhlet method, calculated as follows:

TOs%

TO
 100%
1  W  TO

(3)

Each sample was tested at least in triplicate.

2.3.2.3. Determination of surface oil (SOs). SOs was removed from
the potato chips by immersing them in 50 mL of PE for 1 s at
ambient temperature and dried to constant mass (Bouchon et al.,
2003). SOs was the surface oil content of chips expressed against
the non-fat solid content, calculated as follows:

SOs%

SO
 100%
1  W  TO

(4)
Fig. 1. Typical force vs. distance curves representing results by Texture Expert.

where SO (%) is the surface oil content of the chips (wb).

2.3.2.4. Determination of penetrated surface oil (PSOs) and structural
oil (STOs). After SO extraction, potato chips were nely cut and
dried in a vacuum oven at 50
C for 12 h. Afterwards, the dried
solids were ground and transferred into single-thickness cellulose
extraction thimbles which were placed in dry solvent cup containing 50 mL of PE. Oil extraction was carried out for 4 h using
SOX406 Fat Analyzer (Jinan Hanon Instruments Co., Ltd., Jinan,
China). For analysis, the oil content removing the surface oil (TOSO) was diluted 9 times by volume with PE and the absorbance was
measured at 459 nm. Therefore, the amount of dyed oil was the
penetrated surface oil content of chips expressed against the nonfat solid content, calculated as follows:

PSOs %

sample holder (hollow cylinder) and punctured with a stainlesssteel ball probe (P/0.25 s) at ambient temperature. During the
test, the probe was programmed to move 5.0 mm to break the chip
at a speed of 5 mm/s. The peak force (in Newtons, N), which indicates the textural hardness, was determined from the force vs.
distance curves (Fig. 1) using Texture Expert (version 6.06) software associated with the texture analyzer. At least 10 samples were
performed in each assay. The chips were prepared on the same day
that breaking force was measured.
2.3.4. Microscopic analysis
Oil distribution and the surface morphology of the fried samples

TO  SO  dye concentration in extracted oil g=L

 100%
dye concentration in oil bath g=L  1  W  TO

where PSO (%) is the penetrated surface oil content of the chips
(wb).
This fraction corresponds to the oil that was picked up at the end
of the frying process and penetrated into the structure of the potato
chips after cooling (PSOs). Finally, the amount of non-dyed oil
(STOs) was the structural oil content of chips expressed against the
non-fat solid content as follows:

STOs % TOs %  SOs %  PSOs %

(6)

2.3.3. Texture analysis

Breaking force of samples was measured by puncture test using
a texture analyzer (TA-XT2i, Stable Micro System Co. Ltd., Surrey,
UK). One chip of potato for each treatment (control, coating with
guar gum, coating with guar gum and glycerol) was placed on the

(5)

without dye oil were analyzed using inverted CLSM and SEM,
respectively.
Microstructure observations of fried chips were done with CLSM
(Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, Germany) equipped with a motorized focal
plane and UVeVIS sources. The CLSM microscope was used in its
uorescence mode to observe the extent of oil penetration and its
location inside the structure, or in its reective mode to observe the
topography of fried potato chips as described by Pedreschi and
Aguilera (2002). For studying location of the oil in the chips, raw
potato slices were fried simulating the above conditions directly
inside hot oil mixed with the uorochrome Nile Red (NR, N-3013)
from Sigma Chemical Co., (Color index: 3013, St. Louis, MO) at a NR
concentration of 0.0192 mg/mL according to Pedreschi, Aguilera,
and Arbildua (1999). Fried chips were observed by uorescence
CLSM directly. Image rendering for 3D reconstruction with the serial images obtained by CLSM Carl Zeiss was performed using the
Carl Zeiss LSM software (version 3.92).

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L. Yu et al. / Food Hydrocolloids 54 (2016) 211e219

SEM was used to examine the surface of potato chips. The

samples after extraction of oil were placed on one surface of a twosided adhesive tape that was xed to the sample support. Then,
they were sputtered immediately (CPD-030, BAL-TEC Company,
Liechtenstein). Finally, the specimen fragments were mounted on
aluminum stubs and coated with a thin layer of gold under vacuum
condition. Coated and uncoated potato samples were examined on
a Hitachi S4800 SEM (Tokyo, Japan) at an accelerating voltage of
5.0 kV.
2.4. Statistical analysis
All these experiments were replicated three times, and the
average values are reported. Data analysis was carried out using
SPSS software for Windows V 11.5.1 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Difference among the mean values of test samples was determined using
one-way analysis of variance. The least square difference test (LSD)
is considered signicant at 95% condence level (p < 0.05).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Initial water content, solid content and starch content of potato
Table 1 shows the initial water content, solid content and starch
content of potato before and after blanching. The water content of
the raw potato was 80.5 g/100 g (wb), and the solid content was
19.5 g/100 g (wb). The water content of the potato samples after
blanching (before frying) was 83.3 g/100 g (wb) and the solid
content was 16.8 g/100 g (wb). Compared with fresh potato, the
solid content of blanched potato reduced by 13.8%, which may be
related to the loss of soluble sugar and starch. The initial starch
content of the potato samples was 12.3 g/100 g (wb). It turned out
to be 9.9 g/100 g (wb) after blanching (Table 1), the starch content
reduction was 19.5%.
3.2. The kinetic of water evaporation and oil absorption
The changes in the water content and total oil content proles of
the potato chips with or without coating during frying were
monitored. As shown in Fig. 2, the water contents of three samples
signicantly decreased with the frying time increasing, and they all
reached balance after 8 min frying. The water contents of potato
chips coated with guar gum and guar gum and glycerol were
similar, they were 1.76% and 1.59% (wb) respectively at the frying
time of 8 min (Fig. 2A). Compared with coating treatment, the
amount of water content of control potato chips signicantly
reduced, which had the percentage of the water content of 0.98
(8 min frying). The TOs of control, coated with guar gum and guar
gum and glycerol sharply increased to 49.3%, 28.7% and 29.1%
respectively at the frying time of 2 min, and then slowly increased
for three samples during the whole frying processing. The coated
with guar gum and glycerol samples had lower total oil contents
compared with the control samples and coated with guar gum
samples at 8 min of frying time (Fig. 2C).

Fig. 2. The effects of frying time on the water and oil contents of potato chips. Data
values are means SD (n 3, N 21).

Table 1
Initial water content, solid content and starch content of potato before and after blanching*.
Material
Raw potato
Blanched potato

Initial water content (% w.b.)

a

80.5 0.6
83.3 0.4b

Solid content (% w.b.)

a

19.5 0.6
16.7 0.4a

*Data values are means SD (n 3, N 6). The same letter a or b in column means no signicantly different (P > 0.05).

Starch content (% w.b.)

12.3 0.8a
9.9 0.5a

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215

Table 2
Effects of coating treatments on water content, total oil content and breaking force of potato chips*.
Coating treatments

Water content (% wb)

Total oil content (against the non-fat total

solid content, %)

Total oil content (against the non-fat

potato solid content, %)

Breaking force (N)

Control
Guar gum
Guar gum glycerol

0.98 0.15a
1.76 0.02b
1.59 0.00b

63.7 1.6c
47.1 3.0b
30.7 0.7a

63.7 1.6c
52.9 0.8b
42.2 1.4a

6.27 0.62a
6.62 0.18a
8.04 0.71a

*Data values are means SD (n 3, N 9). The same letter (a, b or c) in column means no signicantly different (P > 0.05).

3.3. Effect of coating on the water content and oil content

As shown in Table 2, compared with the control, coating treatments signicantly improved the water content and reduced the oil
content of potato chips (p < 0.05). Applying guar gum, guar gum
and glycerol on potato chips produced a reduction of TOs absorption against the non-fat total solid content by 26.1% and 51.8%,
respectively, compared with control treatment. When the TOs of
potato chips expressed against the non-fat potato solid content,
applying guar gum, guar gum and glycerol on potato chips produced a reduction of oil absorption by 17.0% and 33.8%, respectively,
compared with control treatment. It indicated that plasticized guar
gum with or without glycerol on potato chips could really reduce
the TOs, not just owing to the increase in solid content.
Garmakhany et al. (2008) found that potato chips coating with
0.3% guar gum could reduce oil-uptake by 54.7%, but the water
content reached 26.3%. Sothornvit (2011) found that applying guar
gum on banana chips, producing a reduction of oil absorption by
25.2% compared with control samples. Kim et al. (2011) reported
that coating French fried potatoes with guar gum solutions at 0.9%
concentration reduced oil uptake by 41%. The oil contents in these
researches all expressed against the total solid content, and
considering the difference in the oil absorption during frying, the
following oil content data was shown against the non-fat total solid
content.
Compared to guar gum coated sample without plasticizer,
glycerol addition did not show noticeable differences with regard
to water content (p > 0.05), but the TOs signicantly reduced,
turned out to be 34.8% (Table 2). In contrast to this behavior, the
addition of glycerol enhanced the barrier properties of the coatings
due to the water holding capacity (Cerqueira, Souza, Teixeira, &
Vicente, 2012). Glycerol is a hydrophilic plasticizer, and when
added at the correct level with respect to the biopolymer content
can reduce intermolecular forces and increase the mobility of
polymer chains. Therefore, the behavior of the glycerol could
improve the mechanical properties of edible lms (Ghasemlou,
Khodaiyan, Oromiehie, & Yarmand, 2011).
Oil reduction of the fried samples could be attributed, among
other causes, to differences in adhesion between substrate and
coating suspension, surface characteristics of the sample and frying
conditions (Garmakhany et al., 2008). Low quantities of guar gum
in aqueous solution can confer high viscosity (Casas, Mohedano, &
Garca-Ochoa, 2000), thus, the good adherence of the guar gum
coating to the surface of potato chips might have resulted from the
~ a et al. (2007) observed that
high viscosity. On the other hand, Vin
the addition of a plasticizer decreased the surface tension, facilitating coating adhesion to foodstuffs. According to Jouki et al.
(2013), the addition of glycerol improved coating exibility and
homogeneity without pores or cracks, as it was aforementioned. As
the founding of Patsioura et al. (2015), larger passages to oil created
by the shrinkage or damage of cell walls during slicing and superheated drying were associated to gaps or defects between cells and
were able to ll one to three cells beneath. The coating treatment
could create a layer of lm, which hinder the oil from entering into
the passages created by frying. In the other hand, coating could

make the surface of potato chips more smooth and formation of

fewer passages, which reduces water evaporation and leads to less
oil uptake.
3.4. Texture of fried potato chips
Crispness is an important index for the potato chips. Lots of
researches showed that maximum breaking force was negative
related to the crispness of chips. Bourne, Moyer, and Hand (1966)
recommended maximum force of break as a measure of crispness

(texture) of potato chips. Segnini, Dejmek, and Oste

(1999) found
the lowest value of water content is related to the highest crispness,
which is related to the lowest value of breaking force. The same

rtola, Martino, and
founding was reported by Garca, Ferrero, Be
Zaritzky (2002). Table 2 shows breaking force results for potato
chips with or without coatings. Comparing to control samples,
more hardness and less crispness were exhibited by potato chips
with coatings. This could be attributed to the adhesiveness of guar
gum and glycerol. Coating with or without glycerol didn't signicantly affect the breaking force of potato chips (P > 0.05) compared
with control samples. Similar results were obtained by Garca et al.
(2002) working on deep-fat frying potato strips and dough discs
coated with plasticized sorbitol lms. It means that coating does
not inuence the texture of potato chips. It is possible to reduce oil
content of this kind of potato product with no consequences on its
quality, by coating potato samples with guar gum with or without
glycerol.
3.5. Effect of coating on oil fractions
Oil fractions and TOs in the fried product depended on the
coating treatments (Fig. 3). The STOs content of nal potato chips

Fig. 3. Effect of coating treatments on total oil content and oil fractions of the potato
chips. Data values are means SD (n 3, N 9). The same letter in column means no
signicantly different (P > 0.05).

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L. Yu et al. / Food Hydrocolloids 54 (2016) 211e219

did not show noticeable reduction with different coating treatments (p > 0.05), but TOs, PSOs and SOs of potato chips diminished
signicantly (p < 0.05). Pedreschi et al. (2008) found that the total
oil in potato chips was absorbed almost in the initial stage of frying
once the potato slices were placed inside the hot oil. The oil absorption was controlled by frying process, especially the initial
frying stage. Coating treatment could make the surface stronger
and effectively prevent the oil's enter.
Compared with control sample, the SOs content of coated potato
chips with or without glycerol reduced 20.4% and 43.9%, respectively, and the PSOs content by 28.8% and 55.0%, respectively. Thus,
PSOs was the main factor which attributed to the TOs reduction of
fried potato chips. As reported by Dana and Saguy (2006), Pedreschi
et al. (2008), after the potato chips was removed from the fryer, a
higher temperature difference between the surface and the interior
could generate a higher negative pressure in the pore space leading
to more oil penetration into their microstructure. Coating treatment could produce a lm barrier and hinder oil penetration,
which also produce the PSOs reduction. Consequently, coatings not
only enhance the barrier properties of fried potato chips, but also
avoid pores and cracks in the fried products with higher toughness.
PSOs constituted the highest fraction of TOs during frying of
both control and coated chips. Coating treatment not only reduced
the oil content, but also varied the oil percentage in TOs. The percentages of PSOs based on the TOs content were 89.9%, 86.9% and
84.3% for control, coated with guar gum and coated with guar gum
and glycerol, respectively. This fact suggests that oil absorption in
potato chips is mainly a surface phenomenon, which is related to
the equilibrium between the adhesion and drainage of oil (Dana &
Saguy, 2006). The STOs fraction is the second important fraction in
the TOs content during frying of the control as well as the coated
chips. The percentage of STOs based on the TOs content were 6.6%,
9.4% and 11.6% for control, coated with guar gum and coated with
guar gum and glycerol, respectively. This conrms that a little of oil
penetrates into fried products. SOs was the lowest constituent of
TOs content, and neither the guar gum coating solution nor the
presence of glycerol affected the percentage of SOs based on the
TOs content signicantly.
3.6. Oil distribution and microstructure of fried potato chips
CLSM makes optical sections in the samples at different depths
(rather than physical sectioning for classical microscopy) allowed
observation of oil distribution in the crust as close to the real situation as possible (Pedreschi & Aguilera, 2002; Pedreschi et al.,
1999).
Fig. 4A, B and C show different patterns of oil distribution in
control and coated samples, respectively. Fig. 4A1, B1, C1 show that
images were taken every 5 mm as the laser penetrated down the z
axis in a potato chip. Only the oil which is in focus at different
depths in the potato chip is recorded in the image. The 3D reconstructions of the gallery of images were obtained in Fig. 4A2, B2
and C2. Lots of integrated cell could be found in control or coated
fried potato chip, and the oil mainly covered the intercellular spaces
and can't enter the integrated cell interior. A similar trend was
reported by Bouchon and Aguilera (2001), Pedreschi et al., (1999),
who revealed that oil seemed to ow through passages that present
the lowest resistance and was concentrated in concave shells
similar to an egg-box structure around the cells, with no presence
of oil in the cell interior. The larger the red (in the web version) area
is, the more the oil content is. The red area was extensive and nearly
occupied the whole potato chips of control. The oil is entirely
accumulated over the entire region (Fig. 4A2). Compared with
control sample, the red area in potato chip coated with guar gum
diminished with some free oil region (Fig. 4B2). As shown in

Fig. 4C2, the free oil region enlarged and more uniformly distributed in the potato chip for coated with guar gum and glycerol. As
shown in Fig. 4A1, the red region near surface of sample was limited
and it enlarged with the depth increasing, which is consistent with
the result of the oil fraction in fried potato chips, PSO constituted
the highest fraction of TO during frying. Fig. 5B1 and C1 show that
the oil is not uniformly located at each depth, thus, oil appeared to
be not concentrated in the entire region. Compared with control
sample, the surface layers of potato chips coating with guar gum
are free of oil (Fig. 4B1), this result conrms that at least some of the
oil does not remain in the outer layer of a potato chip, the guar gum
coating have the ability to be good lipid barrier and decrease the SO
content and oil uptake in fried potato chips. Compared to guar gum
coated sample, glycerol addition show noticeable differences with
regard to the oil location (Fig. 4C1), suggesting that some of the oil
does not penetrate deeply into the interior of the potato chip
coating with guar gum and glycerol, reduce the SO and PSO content.
Glycerol addition improved the exibility and handling of guar gum
coating, maintained integrity and avoided pores and cracks in the
fried potato chips.
The SEM photographs of potato chips (Fig. 5), control, coated
with guar gum and coated with guar gum and glycerol, were
compared. It might explain the results of oil distribution and content. The control product did not show extensive cell separation
and ruptured cells. In contrast, maintained the integrity of most
cells. This was different with the results reported by Khalil (1999),
Singthong and Thongkaew (2009). The photographs of potato chips
coated with guar gum and coated with guar gum and glycerol look
smoother than those of control chips (Fig. 5), consequently preventing oil penetration into the potato tissue during frying process.
Coating samples showed reduction in cell volume and modied the
shape as well (Fig. 5B, C).
Combined the results of oil fraction, SEM and CLSM, we found
that oil absorption was closely related to the total solid content and
the surface structure of sample. During frying coating treatment
could reduce the oil content of potato chips, but it could also partly
prevent the water evaporation (Fig. 6). For control samples, high oil
content was related to the larger passages created by the shrinkage
or damage of cell walls during frying (Fig. 6A). Coating potato chips
with guar gum could create a layer of lm, which partly hinder the
oil enter the passages created by frying (Fig. 6B). The addition of
glycerol to guar gum reduced the intermolecular forces and increase the mobility of polymer chains, making the surface of potato
chips more smooth and formation of fewer passages, which
reduced the oil absorption further (Fig. 6C).
4. Conclusions
Coating with guar gum and glycerol for fried potato chips could
effectively hinder the oil absorption of fried potato chips and have
no negative effects on its breaking force. Compared with control or
samples coated with guar gum, potato chips with guar gum and
glycerol produced a reduction of oil absorption by 51.8% and 34.8%,
respectively. Both for control or coated potato chips, PSOs was
dominant in TOs, followed by STOs and SOs. Coating treatment with
guar gum and glycerol could signicantly reduce the SOs and PSOs
of potato chips. PSOs was the main factor which attributed to the
TOs reduction of fried potato chips. Oil absorption in potato chips is,
to a large extent, dependent on the microstructure and surface
properties of samples. Coating formulations not only enhance the
barrier properties of fried potato chips, but also avoid pores and
cracks in the fried products with higher toughness. CLSM photographs conrmed that at least some of the oil does not remain in
the outer layer of the potato chip coating with guar gum, and some
of the oil does not penetrate deeply into the interior of the potato

L. Yu et al. / Food Hydrocolloids 54 (2016) 211e219

217

Fig. 4. Fluorescence mode CLSM images of oil distribution in control (A), guar gum coated (B) and plasticized guar gum coating with glycerol (C) fried potato chips. (1) Gallery of
CLSM images at different depths. (2) 3D reconstructions of CLSM galleries shown in (1). Each image in the gallery and the 3D image: 1024  1024 mm.

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L. Yu et al. / Food Hydrocolloids 54 (2016) 211e219

Fig. 5. Scan electron microscope photograph of fried potato chips (A means control, B means coating with guar gum, C means coating with guar gum and glycerol).

Fig. 6. Conceptual diagram illustrating of the effect of edible coatings on water and oil transfer of potato chips: Tissue details (green cells, red oil), A means control, B means
coating with guar gum, C means coating with guar gum and glycerol. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of
this article.)

chip coating with guar gum and glycerol. SEM photographs indicated that guar gum, guar gum and glycerol coatings were effective
in preventing oil penetration into the potato tissue during frying
process.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the nancial support of China National Natural Science Foundation (Contract No. 31371812), Jiangsu
Province Natural Science Foundation (BK20131104), Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities (JUSRP51501) and the
Open Project Program of State Key Laboratory of Dairy Biotechnology, Bright Dairy & Food Co. Ltd. (SKLDB2013-05).
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