COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT ON TEXTURAL PARAMETERS OF COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE AND FORTIFIED POTATO CHIPS

Diseases like high cholesterol content and lactose intolerance, among some individual, has led to change in preferences towards foods other than milk to combat the deficiency of calcium. The discrepancy between calcium consumption and requirement has switched the interest of the consumers to calcium fortified products. Processed potato products such as potato chips are widely consumed among vulnerable (children and teenager), therefore can be used as an ideal carrier for targeted nutrient’s delivery i.e. calcium. During potato crisp production, the raw material changes in both texture and color. These changes depend on both potato cultivar and process parameters. The present study was carried out to fortify potato chips with calcium and in turn observed the effect of mineral fortification on texture of chips in comparison with commercial available ones. Fortification of potato chips was done at 15 mm Hg vacuum pressure with GRAS fortificant of calcium (Calcium chloride, E509) using Box-Behnken design of Response Surface Methodology through vacuum impregnation technique. Results showed that optimized process conditions can fortify potato chips at 700mg/100g of calcium level having 460N hardness with acceptable sensory attributes. Textural parameters were found to be similar for both fortified and commercial chips in terms of less number of peaks before fracture and more no of peaks after fracture, reflecting good overall acceptability. Even, calcium fortified potato chips were found to be more acceptable, in terms of higher sensory scores (8.1 on 9-point Hedonic scale versus 8.0 of control preparation), to the consumers in organoleptic evaluation. Thus, mineral fortification for a widely acceptable potato based snacks can be helpful in changing the perception of consumers for potato based snacks from the category of ‘Junk food to Healthy food’.