Nutrient retention factors of deep-fried milanesas

Milanesa is a typical food in Argentina, which consists of beef that is first soaked in crude whisked eggs and then covered with breadcrumbs. The aim of this work was to determine the retention factors for protein, fat, ash and total dietary fiber (TDF), as well as those for Fe, Cu, Ca, Mg and Zn of deep-fried milanesas. The analyses were carried out according to AOAC official methods, except for fat, that was extracted according to the Bligh and Dyer method. Minerals were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry after hydrolysis in sulfuric/nitric acids. Three batches of ten milanesas were deep-fried at 180°C for 1 min per 100 g of product in partially hydrogenated soybean oil. The nutrient retention factors were 1.01, 3.70, 0.78 and 1.39 for protein, fat, ash and TDF, respectively. Retention factors for the minerals were 0.87, 0.97, 0.75, 0.87 and 0.97 for Fe, Cu, Zn, Mg and Ca, respectively.