Scientists X-ray potato chips in attempt to make them more delicious

In a study conducted by Tanjila Alam and Pawan S. Takhar from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the scientists cut russet potatoes into tiny 45-millimeter diameter, 1.65-millimeter thick disks and then deep fried them in soybean oil. The potato samples were fried in 190 degrees Celsius oil for 0, 20, 40, 60, or 80 seconds. After that, the fried potatoes were subjected to X-ray micro-computed tomography, which creates a micro 3D image of the sample without destroying it. The idea here, is to see how frying the potato affects its porosity, the twistiness (“tortuosity”) of the paths connecting the pores, and how much oil the chip takes in, which eventually could help us make better fried foods. More