Some quality characteristics of ultrasonic pre-treated, deepfried zucchinis

Zucchini is a vegetable that is consumed as cooked in various ways in our country. Frying is a common method for zucchini. It has become important to improve the quality and control the oil absorption in terms of frying as desired by the consumers. Until now, different pre-treatment applications have been made to improve the quality. Drying and ultrasound are some of them. In this study, it is aimed to observe the effects of pre-treatments and changing processing conditions on the quality of frying. In this context, the zucchini slices that was applied ultrasound pre-treatment under different conditions (0-50%-100% power, 0-5-10 min time), dried at different temperatures (0-70-90℃) and fried in different conditions (140-160-190℃ temperature, 0,5-1-2 min time), were examined for its mass changes, texture and color values. In addition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images were used for the texture evaluation. With the analysis, it was determined that the increase in drying temperature resulted in a decrease in the mass, all of the ultrasound and frying conditions did not have an individual effect on the sample colors, but the interaction of these process conditions with each other changed the results. It was revealed that the sample with the code T2W2S2K1Y3 was the most suitable for quality, and the interaction between processes was significant in this inference (p<0.05). This study is important in order to determine the quality criteria for processing a local vegetable in a healthy way.