Food Business News - December 20, 2011 - 28

Ingredient Innovations vations

Oils factor into french fry innovation
estaurant chains recently have launched competing french fry promotions. Wendy’s in 2010 introduced its “skin-on” french fries with sea salt, and this month Burger King began selling french fries made from a thicker cut of potato. Whatever french fry innovations follow in the years ahead, expect the choices of oils or oil blends, and how they are used, to factor into any success of the products. Oils may affect the texture (too soggy?) and color (too dark?) of all fried products. Equipment upkeep and labor costs are other considerations when choosing frying oils. “Restaurants are differentiating themselves with their ‘new’ fries — ‘all-natural,’ ‘freshcut,’ ‘better ﬂavor,’ etc.,” said David Dzisiak, global leader of oils for Dow AgroSciences, L.L.C., Indianapolis. “The important point is that the focus is on the potato. Chefs and menu developers want the ﬂavor of the potato, and oils that are more neutral in ﬂavor, like Omega-9 Oils, allow chefs to achieve that.” Dow AgroSciences offers canola and sunﬂower oils that are high in monounsaturated fats (omega-9 fatty acids). Several other oil innovations may be used

with fried foods. Cargill offers Clear Valley high-oleic canola oil, which may be blended with other oils. Supply is increasing for Plenish high-oleic soybeans from Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont company. The soybeans are used to make soybean oil that has oleic content over 75% and saturated fat content that is 20% lower than commodity soybean oil. St. Louis-based Monsanto is awaiting U.S. Department of Agriculture approval on its Vistive Gold soybeans that produce a higholeic, low-saturate, low-trans fat soybean oil. Already available for food service operators, Frymax oil from Stratas Foods, Memphis, Tenn., is a deep frying, higholeic soybean oil that is 77% monounsaturated fat.

french fries frequently were fried in oils with beef tallow, Mr. Erickson said, but then a switch was made to hydrogenated soybean oils with ﬂavors. The next switch was to oils with no trans fat. The oils were softer, more liquid. French fries go limp more quickly when such oils are used, Mr. Erickson said. “The oils that we are now using don’t lend themselves to

Absorption and limp fries
How fried foods absorb oil is pivotal. “Absorption is pretty much everything when it comes to fried foods, and absorption is a function of temperature,” said Mike Erickson, technical services manager for Cargill Oils & Shortenings. Changes in frying oils over the decades brought along the need to adjust frying temperatures. At one time

the same integrity in terms of hardness that we were used to back in the days of beef tallow,” he said. Oil blends are an option. “Frying mediums vary in composition of the base oil,” said Roger Daniels, vice-president of research, development and innovation for Stratas Foods. “Careful selection of the solids level to liquid oil level allows the formulator to achieve a frying medium that is variable in contributing to the development of a french fry with varying degrees of

hardness, cohesiveness and springiness.” A higher frying temperature may help alleviate the problem of french fries going limp too quickly, Mr. Erickson said. Mr. Dzisiak said, “In temperatures that are too low, the fry will likely become soggy with oil. In temperatures that are too high, the fry will likely become hard. Undercooking may also lead to soggy fries, and overcooking leads to hardened, dark fries. Utilizing the proper management techniques and a high stability oil will allow you to produce consistent products basket after basket.” Mr. Erickson said advanced frying equipment also may help. Fryers today have builtin circuits for temperature recovery. He gave an example of putting thick steak fries into a fryer, which makes the temperature inside the fryer nose-dive. A program in the fryer has the ability to recognize the temperature drop and to bring the temperature back to its correct level, somewhat like how cruise-control adjusts speeds when a vehicle goes up-hill. Increased supply of more stable oils, or those with higher

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December 20, 2011

Food Business News - December 20, 2011

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