Abstract: To study the oil absorption pattern of French fries, soybean oil, camellia seed oil and their blends in different proportions were used repeatedly to fry French fries for 1, 3 and 5 d consecutively, and variations in the contents of total, surface and structural oil and water content were measured during the frying process. It was found that for each used oil, the total oil content of French fries increased with frying time, while for each fresh oil it significantly increased with frying time up to 150 s and then did not change, reaching about 0.22 g/g at 240 s. The deterioration degree of frying oil greatly affected the oil content of French fries. For each deterioration level, oil viscosity increased, and the oil absorption ability of French fries became stronger with increasing frying time, as manifested by increased surface oil content for all groups. The rate of change in moisture content declined with increasing frying time up to 120 s for the repeatedly used frying oils. There was an increasing difference in the ratio total oil to moisture content with increasing frying time from 150 to 240 s, and the highest value was observed with camellia seed oil for 3 and 5 d repeated use.

Key words: deep frying, French fries, deterioration