Modelling the kinetics of water loss during potato frying with a compartmental dynamic model

The complexity of the frying process impairs the development of mechanistic models to describe water losses. Empirical models, though lacking a theoretical basis, may provide a suitable and simpler alternative. In this work it was found that a two parallel compartments model (core and edge compartments), with a time-dependent boundary condition, could be successfully applied for this purpose. The model showed a good fit to the experimental data for a variety of experimental conditions tested: potato geometry and size, temperature, oil type and oil use. The core compartment was found to contain about 63% of the initial potato water content. The rate constants of two-compartments were very sensitive to slice thickness, whereas temperature affected only the rate constant of the core compartment. No significant effects were detected in terms of oil type or oil use.