Effect of innovative pre-treatments on the mitigation of acrylamide formation in potato chips

The aim of this research was to evaluate the reduction of acrylamide (AA) formation in potato chips applying innovative pre-treatments. Raw potato slices were subjected for 5 and 15 min to: dipping in water; dipping in Aureobasidium pullulans L1 yeast water suspension; dipping in water or in yeast water suspension after pulsed electric fields (PEF) in order to investigate a possible synergistic effect of pre-treatments. The raw potato samples were analysed for AA precursors and, after frying, for AA by using HPLC-MS/MS. In addition, the final potato chips main quality parameters were evaluated. Compared to untreated potato chips, yeast treatment promoted a reduction of AA formation mainly at the longest dipping time (15 min). PEF treatment followed by water dipping was the most effective in reducing AA for both the studied treatment times. The combination of PEF and yeast treatments led only a slight reduction of AA formation. The Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/2158 has established new acrylamide (AA) benchmark levels in different foods due to its negative classification as “probably carcinogenic to human”. For this reason, food industries are interested in developing different processing methods to reduce the AA formation and at the same time to maintain an acceptable quality of final products. Fried potatoes (French fries and chips) are the most vulnerable foods in terms of high content of AA formation, being rich in the main Maillard reaction substrates, such as asparagine and reducing sugars, and characterized by a high surface to volume ratio. Among the strategies recently suggested for the reduction of AA in potato chips, pulsed electric fields (PEF) and yeast pre-treatments are very promising, having the potentiality to reduce AA precursors in raw potato tissues. In this study the possibility to apply yeast and PEF pre-treatments on raw potato slices with suitable processing times for a possible industrial application were evaluated. •PEF and yeast were applied for the reduction of acrylamide content in potato chips.•Yeast activity can promote the reduction of acrylamide content in potato chips.•PEF treatment was the most effective in reducing acrylamide in potato chips.•The pre-treatments slightly influenced the quality characteristics of potato chips.