The aim of this work was to investigate the influence of oil origin (sunflower oil, vegetable oil, palm oil) as well as pre-frying treatment (blanching in water solutions of calcium chloride or citric acid, immersion in some carboxymethyl cellulose derivatives solutions) on the oil absorption in fried potato strips. The results obtained have shown that the oil origin has no significant influence on the potato fat uptake. On the contrary, pre-frying treatments considerably decreased the oil absorption. The lowest oil absorption was found for the potato blanched in calcium chloride solution, and the greatest for the potato blanched in water. Immersion in hydrocolloid solution significantly (p less than or equal to 0.05) affected the fried potato fat uptake. The best result was obtained for the potato strips blanched in 0.5% calcium chloride solution following immersion in 1% solution of carboxymethyl cellulose type YOEH, where the reduction of oil content reached 54%. Other hydrocolloids had a less significant effect on the fried potato fat absorption. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.