Resumo:
Fried potatoes are one of the most consumed snacks in the world. The size of the global
potato chip market reached a value of 31.2 billion dollars in 2020, being considered one of the
most important foods in the world snack industry. The main problem that accompanies the
manufacturing process of this product is the high content of lipids in the finished product, which
can cause an increase in blood pressure and cholesterol levels. In this context, this study aimed
to optimize the frying process of shoestring potatoes using deep-fat frying process. Thus, it was
intended the identification of the optimal combination of the process parameters, providing
better results for the characteristics of the product, namely, moisture content, fat content and
color. Also, it was intended the optimization of the process productivity by reducing cycle time.
The parameters analyzed were temperature, duration of deep-fat frying process and duration of
the oil drainage period after frying. Potatoes of the species Solanum tuberosum from Asterix
variety and palm oil were used. The Response Surface Methodology was used in order to carry
out the planning, data collection and analysis of the experiments. The model optimization was
performed using the Multivariate Mean Square Error. At the end of this study, it was possible
to obtain the optimized values of the analyzed inputs, which were 171.38 °C for temperature,
4.13 min for process duration and 32.27 s for oil drainage duration. The responses optimized
values were 3.00% for moisture content, 29.57% for fat content, 1.75 for total color difference
and 280.05 for cycle time.