Potatoes graded on the basis of length and as per specifications are used for French Fries.
The Potatoes are manually uploaded into the in-feed hopper, which maintains constant and control supply to the line. The In-feed Hopper feeds to the De-stoner which pre cleans the Potatoes and separates the sand, clay, stones etc. The pre washed Potatoes are elevated to feed to Continuous Abrasive Peeler. The Potatoes are peeled in a continuous abrasive peeler. The degree of peeling is controlled by adjustable speeds of abrasive rolls and residence time in the Peeler. The peeled Potatoes are visually inspected on an inspection conveyor for defects or for trimming off defective parts.
The Potatoes are then collected in a hopper of an elevator, which maintains a regulated and constant feed of Potatoes to the French fry cutter and also maintains feed for the rated output capacity.
The graded whole potatoes are cut into strip in a mechanical cutter. The cutter can cut into plain and crinkle cut strips. The Slivers and Nubbin i.e. sidepieces and small pieces are separated on the sliver removes and Nubbin remover respectively.
The strips are visually inspected on an inspection conveyor to separate the defective pieces. An inclined elevator feeds the strips to the Blancher. Blanching is done in two stages. The Potato strips are pre blanched in a screw type water blancher. The temperature and time are adjustable.
The pre-blanched strips are cooled in a cooling elevator, which is fitted with water sprays.
The final blanching is done again in a Screw type water blancher where the process parameters are adjustable. Two-stage blanching is done to achieve the desired texture in the finished product.
The blanched strips are passed through a dipping elevator for dipping in additive solution. The product is then fed to belt drier through an in-feed shaker.
The surface water and partial moisture from the strips are removed in the hot air belt drier. This process helps in less absorption of oil during frying and also to achieve desired crispy texture during frying process.
The fried product is passed through an equilibration belt to achieve equilibrium moisture level and also used for final inspection of the product if required.
As in-feed shaker uniformly feeds the strips to the Multi Flow Frying system. The strips are par fried in the frying system, where edible oil is continuously filtered, indirectly heated and circulated in the fryer. The automatic adjustable process control ensures uniform and consistent product quality. The surface oil is allowed to drip off from a de-fatting shaker.
Ambient cooler belt helps to bring temperature of Fries down to the required levels, so that the product can go for Freezing .
The freezer feed elevator feeds the par fried French Fries to the IQF belt type freezer, to individually quick-freeze the product to –18ºC.
Based on the materials of Wntech Taparia Limited
