Abstract: An process for preparing frozen potato strips or root vegetable strips includes blanching the strips, parfrying the strips in oil in a vacuum and then freezing the strips. In another embodiments, the strips are blanched, fried in oil at atmospheric pressure, cooled in air, parfried in oil in vacuum and then frozen.

Abstract: A process for preparing frozen potato strips includes blanching the strips, parfrying the strips in oil in a vacuum and then freezing the strips. In another embodiment, the strips are blanched, fried in oil at atmospheric pressure, cooled in air, parfried in oil in a vacuum and then frozen.

Abstract: This invention includes an optical characterization method capable of determining various characteristics of samples that preferably include naturally-occurring color deviations. In the preferred embodiment, this method is used in connection with food products and, particularly, potato products such as french fried potatoes. The method of this invention overcomes such disadvantages by generating from the RGB pixel values a sample-based color space that corresponds to the naturally-occurring color deviations of the samples. Preferably, the method includes generating HSI pixel values that correspond to the RGB pixel values and are defined with respect to an HSI color space having hue, saturation, and intensity coordinates. The sample-based representation of the color characteristics of the samples is determined on a pixel-by-pixel basis. As a result, color grades for the samples can be assigned according to the distribution of pixels within the sample-based representation.