Ahmad Sulaeman is sadly familiar with malnutrition and its potentially devastating effect on children.

The University of Nebraska graduate student from Indonesia knows vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of blindness in children in his homeland and other developing countries. As many as 250,000 to 500,000 children lose their sight worldwide each year. Another 250 million children 5 and younger are vitamin A-deficient and at risk of severe illness or death.

Nutrition Scientist Judy Driskell and Sulaeman have developed a new food product, deep-fried carrot chips, that they hope will combat vitamin A deficiency and visual impairment in Indonesia and other developing countries.

Healthy junk food may seem a contradiction in terms, but that's what they call their carrot chips, which are deep-fried and resemble an orange potato chip.

The Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources researchers wanted to create a visually appealing, tasty, healthy snack food. They chose carrot chips because "chips are accepted not just in this country but worldwide," Driskell said. Carrots contain the most vitamin A carotenoids, the primary source of vitamin A for most people in developing countries.

Sulaeman finished his doctorate late last year and returned to Indonesia. He wants to find an Indonesian food manufacturer to make the chips, which he hopes will be incorporated into a national school lunch program.

"One of our goals was to develop a manufacturing process that would be simple and inexpensive so that it could be used in developing countries," Driskell said.

Carrots are a good choice for chips because they are inexpensive and commonly used in Indonesian soups, Sulaeman said.

The researchers collaborated with NU's Food Processing Center to produce the chips.

They sliced and fried jumbo carrots, varying the type of oil, temperature and frying time.

Partially hydrogenated soybean oil worked best, Sulaeman said.

The challenge was making chips with an acceptable color that are high in vitamin A carotenoids. Their earliest efforts produced tasty chips that turned dark brown during frying. They discovered that blanching the carrots and soaking them in a solution commonly used in the food industry before frying retained the bright orange color.

Trained laboratory and consumer taste panels rated the lightly salted chips' taste, smell and crispness as good, Driskell said.

The chips' fat content is 55 percent. This is acceptable in developing countries where many people do not get enough calories. It is less desirable in the United States, however, where most people get plenty of fat, she said.

The College of Human Resources and Family Sciences researcher and Sulaeman are working to decrease the fat content so the product better fits American diets.

In this country, health concerns primarily focus on chronic degenerative diseases, not malnutrition, Driskell said.

"There is some evidence, although it is not conclusive, that carotenoids may decrease the incidence of some of these chronic diseases. Therefore, a lower-fat version of the chips could be beneficial for Americans, too," she said.

The researchers decided against patenting the higher-fat version because they want the chips to be inexpensively manufactured in developing countries. They might seek a patent on the low-fat variety if current research is successful in creating a low-fat chip.

– Linda Ulrich

Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of blindness in children in developing countries. IANR researchers have developed a new food product, deep-fried carrot chips, which is rich in vitamin A.

IANR graduate student Ahmad Sulaeman and Nutrition Scientist Judy Driskell blanch sliced carrots in the NU Food Processing Center.

Muflih Fadhlurrah, 7, and Madison Giraud, 6, enthusiastically munch the carrot chips.