Standardization of frying time-temperature strategy for enhancing the quality and storability of chayote chips.

To investigate the physico-chemical characteristics of deep fried chayote chips snack foods and their impact on storage stability under different packaging materials, deep fried ready-to-eat chayote chips was prepared under optimised processing parameters at temperatures of 150-170°C for 5-15 s using refined soybean oil. The results revealed that chayote chips fried for 15 s at 170°C had the highest overall acceptability (7.09), the lowest hardness (50.29 N), and the best colour value. Chayote chips were deep fried and then stored in aluminium coated laminate (ACL) & low density polyethylene (LDPE) packaging material to estimate the shelf life stability (LDPE). The ACL packing material was found to be more successful in terms of reducing free fatty acids (0.68 percent), peroxidase value (3.76meq/kg), and colour value "L, " "a, " and "b" retention. The shelf life of chayote chips packed in ACL packaging material was 120 days, with superior quality retention. All...