Nutrient composition and sensory evaluation of air and deep-fried yam chips

Abstract

The study was carried out to evaluate the effect of air frying on the nutritional and sensory properties of yam chips. Yam chips of approximately equal dimensions (0.1 cm thickness, 0.8 cm width, and 9.0 cm height) were either deep or air fried for 10 min at 170^oC. Un-fried yam chips (RY) served as control. Proximate composition and vitamin content of the raw, air (AFC), and deep-fried (DFC) chips were determined, using standard methods. The free fatty acid, peroxide, and anisidine values, % oil uptake, and sensory properties were evaluated. There were significant (p<0.05) differences among the samples in the proximate composition, vitamin C, fatty acid,  peroxide, and anisidine value (AV). The crude fat content of AFC was 7.8% while that of DFC was 17.40%. The moisture content of AFC (37.71%) was significantly (p<0.05) higher than that of DFC (13.61%). The vitamin C content of the samples ranged from 0.70 mg/100 g to 1.20 mg/100 g with DFC having significantly (p<0.05) higher value than either RY or AFC. Free fatty acid, peroxide value, and AV of AFC (0.12%. 1.30 meq/Kg, 0.48) were lower than those of DFC (0.32%, 1.38 meq/Kg, 0.87Anv). The air-fried samples had significantly (p<0.05) higher scores for taste and overall acceptability but lower scores were recorded for oiliness. There was no significant (p>0.05) difference in the colour scores of the samples. This study showed that more acceptable low-fat yam chips can be produced using the air-frying method than the deep-frying method.