Chips & snacks: fried, baked

Frying is the central process in the production of potato chips and snacks. It helps giving the product the expected aroma specific of crispy fried products . However , such treatment is accompanied by the formation of undesirable neoformed compounds, like acrylamide , from Maillard reactions occurring between the reducing sugars and the amino acid asparagine . Currently, this compound is not regulated , but the European authorities has given guide values ​​(1000 μg / kg) and some markets already require compliance with these thresholds.

The formation of acrylamide in potato chips is explained by two main factors: the content of asparagine and reducing sugars , whose concentration increases with storage and process conditions ( including frying temperature  ) .

A possible solution is to control the amount of acrylamide in end-products. However, analyzes currently performed as ELISA are too long and technical for sufficient reactivity

However, the FLUORALYS ® analyzer allows to measure in real time the acrylamide content of each batch, based on a calibration model carried out beforehand .

Altho, a SME producing potato chips in Brittany (France), is equipped with FLUORALYS ® analyzer in order to quickly measure acrylamide content in their production. The company understands the growing challenge of this measurement for quality control . Their objective is to carry out these measurements routinely on chips at the end of the process and understand the impact of raw materials and process in the formation of acrylamide.

Thanks to the multi- information contained in the fluorescence spectra, other parameters of interest such as color can also be predicted when they are mainly affected by the process of frying. Beyond the analysis of the end-product, various matrices of the process can be measured through appropriate calibrations . This enables the same tool to analyze raw potatoes to monitor their fluctuations and frying oils to to asses the oxidation level .