Comparative Study of Pre-treatments and Frying Oils on the Physical Properties of Fried Cucumber Chips

Cucumber is a highly perishable vegetable, and its processing into fried chips offers an alternative product form. This study evaluated the effects of pretreatment and frying oil on selected physical properties of fried cucumber chips. Cucumber slices were subjected to five pretreatment conditions (T1–T5), predried in a tray dryer at 60°C, and fried using sunflower, canola, groundnut, or mustard oil. The physical parameters evaluated included chip thickness, diameter, spread ratio, and mass. Thickness decreased markedly during processing, particularly after drying and frying. After frying, thickness ranged from 0.28 to 0.45 mm in sunflower oil, 0.39 to 0.71 mm in canola oil, 0.18 to 0.38 mm in groundnut oil, and 0.33 to 0.55 mm in mustard oil. Fried-chip diameter ranged from 15.64 to 21.76 mm for sunflower oil, 18.70 to 22.73 mm for canola oil, 16.69 to 22.80 mm for groundnut oil, and 15.60 to 22.75 mm for mustard oil. Spread ratio also varied among pretreatments and frying oils, with values ranging from 26.09 to 95.64 after frying. The mass of fried chips ranged from 1.43 to 3.00 g across the treatment and oil combinations. Analysis of variance indicated that the effects observed for thickness, diameter, spread ratio, and mass were not statistically significant at the 5% significance level. The results therefore show numerical variation in the physical characteristics of cucumber chips among the evaluated pretreatment and frying-oil combinations, although these differences were not statistically significant under the experimental conditions.