Rice flour makes a healthier batter.

Fillets of fish and chicken, whole mushrooms and onions seem more savory after being dipped in a seasoned flour mixture and then fried to a golden brown. However, many consumers can only dream of enjoying such fried foods because these treats contain high levels of fat and may pose other health risks.

But this could soon change, as USDA-ARS scientists have developed a healthier batter with which to coat these foods. ARS chemists examined a variety of batters, made with long-grain rice, waxy rice, wheat or corn, to see which type of flour would take up the least amount of oil. Their findings: Batters made with long-grain rice flour and small amounts of other specially modified rice ingredients absorbed about 55% less oil than the traditional wheat batter. Rice flour has unique properties that resist oil absorption. The researchers were also interested in how much acrylamide the batters produced during the frying process. A chemical found in many cooked foods, acrylamide forms in the presence of high temperatures and specific interactions between protein components and carbohydrates.

While there are no guidelines yet on safe levels of acrylamide in foods, excessive levels of the chemical may be a cause of concern. The scientists found that the batter formulated with long-grain rice flour and other modified rice ingredients contained 60% less acrylamide than the wheat-based batter.

But acrylamide levels for all the tested batters were still relatively low when compared to levels in other fried foods, like potato chips. In addition to being low in acrylamide and oil uptake, the new 100% rice batter is also gluten-free.

Patent. 6,224,921--Rice flour-based low-oil-uptake frying batters. Issued: May 1, 2001. Inventors: Frederick Shih and Kim Daigle. Assigned to USDA. Rice-based frying batters significantly reduce oil uptake during the frying process while retaining desirable organoleptic properties. Low-oil-uptake frying batters substantially based on rice flour maintain desirable organoleptic properties, while significantly reducing fat absorption during the frying process. This is accomplished by the inclusion of cold water swelling rice-based starch products selected from the group consisting of pregelatinized rice flour, phosphorylated rice starch and pregelatinized acetylated rice starch into the rice starch batter compositions.

Further information. Fred Shih, USDA-ARS Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research Unit, Southern Regional Research Center, Room 2128, 1100 Robert E. Lee Blvd., New Orleans, LA 70124; phone: [phone]; fax: [phone]; email: [e-mail].