Potato chips/Pommes Frites

Description of product

Potato chips are prepared from pieces of potatoes, usually about 1 cm thick and 3–4 cm long, which are deep-fried in hot fat or oil. The fat content of the final product lies between 9% and 20%. A fat content of 13% is considered reasonable and agreeable.

• How much fat the chips take up depends on their pre-treatment, the frying temperature and the degree of vitiation of the chip fat. The older the fat, the more it soaks into the potato pieces.

Convenience products for snack bars or oven-ready chips are already blanched and pre-fried.

Possible application of gene technology

Frying oil: the oil used is not actually an ingredient but because of the method of preparation is contained in the final product. Gene technological applications are possible for the following oils:

• plant oils such as soya oil or rapeseed oil, and cottonseed oil

Applications of gene technology are possible in the following ingredients that commonly are found in potato chips. However, the extent to which a particular product is affected by these possibilities cannot be stated with certainty:

• antioxidant agent: ascorbic acid
• spices and flavourings
• dextrose