Abstract:
The aim of this study was to examine the effects of thiol compounds, glutathione (GSH), cysteine (CYS) and N-acetylcysteine (NAC), on the color, antioxidant activity, total phenolic, ascorbic acid and acrylamide content of French fries which were fried at 180 degrees C for 6 min. Three different concentrations (0.5%, 1.0%, 2.0%) of each thiol compound were tested. Sulphite solution was used as a benchmark. According to the results, CYS and NAC solutions increased the antioxidant activity but GSH solution did not affect. The amount of ascorbic acid was highest in CYS (1.0%, 2.0%) and GSH (2.0%) treated samples. Although all pre-treatments decreased the acrylamide content, GSH2.0%, NAC2.0%, CYS (0.5%, 1.0%, 2.0%) provided 62-70% reduction. In addition, acrylamide showed a high correlation with L* (r=-0.82), a* (r=0.84), b* (r=0.77), Delta E (r=0.66), ascorbic acid (r=-0.79) and weak correlation with thiol content (r=-0.45). On the other hand, antioxidant activities had lack of correlation with acrylamide.