Frozen chips

[Lord Elpus]

Newbie here, looking for answers to two questions relating to frozen chips, and hoping this is not too mundane, but it has puzzled me and can only think there must be scientific reasons.

Quick background - I was weighing a portion of McCains frozen oven chips to calculate what my calorie intake would be, and am now puzzled

1/. As I was writing down the weight I noticed it went up by 1 gram, so thinking I was going mad, and watched them on the scales a bit longer, only to see the weight going up by 1 gram about every 10 seconds, which I thought was crazy. So please, what is causing that? 

2/. I noticed on the bag of chips it stated that the calories per 100g. was 578 cals. frozen BUT 708 cals. baked. Why?

Thanking you.

Lord E  

 

 

[StringJunky]

If you expose frozen chips to air, more moisture will condense on the chips from it. Every ml of water condensed from the air adds 1g to the chips..

The chips, after baking, lose moisture, which concentrates the calories, so if you now weigh 100g of baked chips there are more calories.

Edited January 23, 2021 by StringJunky

[Lord Elpus]

Beautifully explained, thank you. And makes perfect sense when you think of burst water pipes because the ice water expands as it defrosts.

And your explanation of the calorie increase is logical too, so thank you for that also String Junky 

Lord E

[studiot]

2 hours ago, StringJunky said:

If you expose frozen chips to air, more moisture will condense on the chips from it. Every ml of water condensed from the air adds 1g to the chips..

The chips, after baking, lose moisture, which concentrates the calories, so if you now weigh 100g of baked chips there are more calories.

Well thought out and presented answer +1

[StringJunky]

14 minutes ago, studiot said:

Well thought out and presented answer +1

Thanks.  

[Lord Elpus]

Seeing your 'signature', reminds of this one, which may seem apt with my original query :-

Confucius also says "He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever."

🙂

 

 

[beecee]

Who would have thunk it! Great question, and great answer.

[Lord Elpus]

Thank you 🙂

 

[sethoflagos]

20 hours ago, Lord Elpus said:

2/. I noticed on the bag of chips it stated that the calories per 100g. was 578 cals. frozen BUT 708 cals. baked. Why?

My immediate thought was that cooking may convert some indigestible starch to a more digestible form. But then I started wondering how many calories you would expend in thawing out frozen chips in your stomach.

Edited January 24, 2021 by sethoflagos