Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #153709
Title: EFFECTS OF FLOUR SOURCES ON ACRYLAMIDE FORMATION AND OIL UPTAKE IN FRIED BATTERS

Author
item Shih, Frederick
item Boue, Stephen
item Daigle, Kim
item Shih, Betty

Submitted to: Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/31/2003
Publication Date: 3/1/2004
Citation: Shih, F.F., Boue, S.M., Daigle, K.W., Shih, B.Y. 2004. Effects of flour sources on acrylamide formation and oil uptake in fried batters. Journal of American Oil Chemists Society. 81:265-268.

Interpretive Summary: Batters are useful and popular in the preparation of fried foods. However, while fried batters may enhance the sensory quality of the coated food, they also introduce undesirable effects to the consumers. Normally, fried batters contain high amounts of fat that are responsible for fat-related health problems, such as obesity and heart disease. Recently, acrylamide found in food has become a health concern because acrylamide is carcinogenic. Factors that favor the formation of acrylamide, include high temperature processing and interactions of batter components, such as carbohydrate and protein. These are also conditions under which fried batters are prepared. Therefore, fried batters may contain elevated amounts of, in addition to oil, acrylamide. In this research, we investigated the acrylamide formation of batters during frying. We found that flour components played a role not only in oil absorption, but also acrylamide formation during frying. The study gives us a better understanding of the oil uptake and acrylamide formation of fried batters, and could ultimately lead to the development of fried batters that are both low in oil and in acrylamide.

Technical Abstract: Food batters were formulated using flours of long grain rice, waxy rice, wheat, corn, potato or sweet potato. Acrylamide and oil analyses were conducted for the flour and the corresponding fried batter. During frying, the formation of acrylamide ranged from 82 ng/g for the long grain rice batter to 263 ng/g for the corn batter, except for the potato batter, which registered an unusually high 3541 ng/g. Oil uptake ranged from 21.4% for the long grain rice batter to 47.3% for the wheat batter. The incorporation of 5% pregelatinized rice flour and 1.5-3.0% milk as functional additives into the long grain rice batter only slightly increased the acrylamide and oil contents.