Effective water diffusivity in deep-fat fried restructured potato product

Water diffusivity was determined for a restructured potato product undergoing deep-fat frying. Pre-fried product gel-strength, expressed by its deformability modulus, varied from 37 to 127 kPa and markedly affected the effective diffusion coefficients, ranging from 3.31 to 1.58 x 10(-9) m(2) s(-1), respectively. Pre- and post-fried effective water diffusivity decreased with higher deformability modulus. Frying time reduced the effective water diffusivity only when the initial deformability modulus was higher than 52 and 79 kPa for 1 and 5 min, respectively. Oil uptake criterion was found to increase with the effective water diffusivity for frying durations of 1 and 5 min.