Quality attributes and shelf-life of vacuum packaged potato strips (Solanum tuberosum) as 1 affected by edible coatings, thermal and non-thermal treatments 2 3 R. D.A. Amaral 1,2 , I. Achaerandio 1 , B. C. Benedetti 2 , M. Pujolà 1 * 4 1 Department d’Enginyeria Agroalimentària i Biotecnologia, Escola Superior d’Agricultura de 5 Barcelona, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya BarcelonaTech. Barcelona, Spain 6 2 Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil 7 Email address: montserrat.pujola@upc.edu (M.Pujola) 8 9 Abstract 10 The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of using ultrasound or edible coating as a possible 11 alternative to blanching on the quality of vacuum-packaged potato strips. The treatments assessed 12 were blanching (85ºC, 3.5 min), coating with 2 % alginate and sonicating (42 kHz, 5 min) in an 13 ultrasonic bath containing a 2 % citric acid solution. Vacuum-packaged samples were stored up to 12 14 days at 3 ±1ºC. The pH, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, sugars and microbial load were assessed. 15 Also, the colour, shear-force and dry matter of the treated and fried potato strips as well as the oil 16 adsorption and acrylamide after frying were evaluated. The PPO activity of the treated samples was 17 not significantly different over time (p>0.05). The treatments applied did not affect the attributes of 18 the fried potato strips over time; there were no significant changes in oil absorption, acrylamide 19 content or colour (p>0.05). However, the visual quality of sonicated packaged potato strips was 20 significantly better than that of the other treatments after storage. The loss of the texture of blanched 21 potatoes was remarkable (p<0.05) before and after frying. Sonicated samples maintained mesophilic 22 bacteria counts better than blanched and alginate coated vacuum-packaged potato strips. 23 24 25 26 Keywords: ultrasound, blanching, PPO, alginate, French fries. 27 28 *Manuscript Click here to view linked References