Background and objectives: Potatoes nutritional and
bioactive features are influenced by thermal processing conditions,
defining its nutritional composition and health impact.
Consumers seek increasingly for faster domestic cooking
methods, such as microwave cooking in alternative to current
frying or baking. Also, several devices are being commercialized
for healthier frying simulation, without a documented
characterization of the final processed food nutritional data.
Thus, this study aimed to assess and compare the influence of
these domestic processing methods on the quality of potatoes
processed with olive oil.
Methods: Potatoes were processed by frying, baking, microwave
and a low-fat frying device, with equivalent shape and
olive oil amounts, except frying. Samples were evaluated for
crude fat, fatty acid composition, vitamin E, total carotenoids
and total phenols.
Results: Microwave cooked potatoes presented similar fat
contents as standard frying, higher than those achieved by baking
or with the low-fat frying device tested, but the fatty acid
composition was similar. Vitamin E loss was comparatively
higher after frying but no significant differences were found for
total carotenoids. Potatoes phenolic compounds were partially
loss during cooking, being apparently higher after baking.
Conclusions: The distinct nutritional features obtained
highlight for the importance of detailing the food compositional
tables regarding each processing method, including the
“new” domestic methodologies, increasingly used by consumers
