Effect of electrode voltage for NaCl coating on baked potato chips in continuous electrostatic coating system

Powder coating is an important process in the food industry, especially for snack foods such as potato chips, to create variety in food products. Electrostatic coating has been adopted in order to provide better transfer efficiency and lower the dust produced during coating. Studying the effect of electrode voltage on coating efficiency and evenness of baked potato chips using the developed electrostatic powder coating system was the main purpose of this research. Different types of NaCl (refined and table salts) were coated on baked potato chips at 0, 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 kV. After coating with either refined or table salt, transfer efficiency, adhesion after coating, coating evenness and texture of samples were determined. Higher transfer efficiency, adhesion and coating evenness were observed when electrostatic coating was conducted at 30-50 kV. Most samples with higher transfer efficiency, adhesion and evenness were obtained after electrostatic coating. However, it did not significantly affect hardness of baked potato chips.