Potato chips manufacturing

Potato chips are a high energy food produced by the rapid dehydration of potato slices in direct contact with hot fat at temperatures ranging from 325 to 375 ° F. Since the shelf life of potato chips is not long (1-2 months, they must be manufactured for 8-10 months in a year, so that they will be continuously available on the market.

Generally, the technological scheme of chip manufacture includes the following processes:
Potato delivery
Washing
Weighing
Peeling
Trimming
Inspection of peeled potatoes
Slicing
Rinsing of slices
Partial drying of slices before frying
Frying
Salting
Flavoring
Inspecting fried chips
Cooling
Weighing
Packaging

*Potato tubers are wasted in a drum or a flotation washer. Sand, dirt and also undesirable microorganisms are removed from potato tubers and thus sanitary preparation of the raw material destined for processing is improved.

*Efficiency in slicing produces clean slices with no feathered edges and not torn slices. The kind of slices adsorb less oil and do not leave potato pieces in the oil to cause it to breakdown more quickly.

*During dehydration, which requires about 4 minutes enough fat is absorbed by or adsorb on the chip to result in 30 to 50% content of the finished product. This fat adds to the flavor and nutritive value of the chip.

*Dried potato chips are dried in conventional ovens with no oil. The practice of drying takes much longer but this practice may be easier to control the color and moisture content of the chips. The thinner the slice the quicker the drying, however most dried chips should be sliced thicker than fried chips.

Potato chips and related products are the only potato products sold at retail that are truly ready-to-eat; even frozen French fried potatoes require thawing and reheating.
Potato chips manufacturing 

Potato chips processing

The food industry is shifting from an industry whose task was, during the twentieth century, the scaling up of small production processes into highly efficient fabrication lines.

Potato chips are thin slices of deep fried potato of about 2% moisture that come in a variety of flavors – from the traditional salted and barbeque, ranch and cheddar favorites to more gourmet and ethnic flavors.

Most establishment use white-skinned potatoes for chips compared to 10% that use red skinned potatoes.

Many reason were given for preferred skin color. These included tuber quality, price, availability and economical oil consumption.

The process started with peeling and rinsing the potato. Peeling should remove as little of the cortisol tissue, which contains 40-50% of the total solids.

While rinsing removes surface starch which prevents potato slices from adhering to each other during drying and sugar.

At the same time, rotten, spots, deep black eyes, and other physical defects are removed.

Then sliced into 1 mm slices using a food processor.

The slices were washed afterwards in warm water several times to remove surface starch. Blanching is carried out to improve the color of the finished product – the process may reduce browning during the frying process.

About 60% of the establishment blanch before frying.

Then the slices are deep fried for 3 minutes at temperature ranging from 180-185 degree C. Water is removed from slice and is replaced by oil amounting to as much as 35-40% of the finished chips.

The oil or fat used does not seem affect product quality. Oils and fat used were either vegetable-based or corn based.

When the temperature of the slices is near 150 degree C the vacuole of the tuber cells began to breakdown sugar are released and the chip starts to develop color.

The chips are allowed to drain afterwards for 2-3 minutes before transferred into a stainless food container.

Potato chips processing