Blanching potatoes is an important process in french fries processing procedure, which is to heat potatoes in boiling water or steam for a short time.
Time Requirement of Blanching Potatoes
Even though it seems very easy to operate, it has special requirement for the blanching time. If under blanching, it will actually stimulate the activity of enzymes existed in potatoes, which will cause loss of flavor, color and texture. The results of under blanching is worse than no blanching. If over blanching, quality of potatoes will decrease. It will affect flavor, color, vitamins and minerals and increase production cost.
Benefits of Blanching Potatoes
People use blanching for different purposes, and thus may have various benefits. Blanching potatoes can help remove skin, keep it fresh, protect the color and preserve potatoes. As to blanching potatoes for french fries, the benefits are as follows:
1. Blanching can help clean the surface of potatoes. It can also kill bacteria, molds and other organisms existed on the surface of potatoes.
2. Blanching potatoes can stop the enzyme action. When vegetables reach maturity, enzyme will continue to work until making the vegetables develop viable seed for reproduction. Blanching can kill enzymes, thus preserve flavor, color and texture of potatoes. It can also prolong the storage life of potatoes. After blanching, potatoes can not turn black even if it is exposed to oxygen.
3. Blanching can gelatinizes the starch. During the frying process, the blanched potatoes will quickly form a layer of gelatinized starch at the surface layer, which can limit oil absorption and improve texture.
4. Blanching can reduce acrylamide in fries. Blanching can extract reducing sugars and amino acid asparagine in potatoes and reduce acrylamide content in French fries. After frying, potatoes can form uniform colour.
From above, we can conclude that blanching is necessary and important in french fries processing procedure. The electric blanching machine is used for blanching potatoes for french fries. This machine has longer service life and sanitary working condition and is easy to operate.
