Evaluation of potato chips color using image processing

Machine Vision is one of the useful technology in food and agricultural industry. This technology is commodious tool for rapid evaluation of food material quality. In this research, using a digital camera, a PC and an Image J graphical software, a simple and low cost method for the evaluation of color of potato during frying is introduced. Analysis of digital pictures of the surface of samples can give L, a, b Hunter color parameters and color distribution. Efficacy of temperature and time in frying process on potato chips color change were evaluated. Frying of potato chips in temperatures (140, 150, 160 and 170 ˚C) and times (120, 180 and 240 second) was investigated. Color changes of the fried samples were evaluated by analyzing the digital pictures of the samples and showed that increasing of temperature and time caused a systematic increase of a, b and reduction of L values.