Ready-to-eat (RTE) potato snacks were developed with high temperature short time (HTST) air puffing process based on centre composite RSM design. The effects of process parameters viz. puffing temperature (175-275 degrees C), puffing time (15-75 s), initial moisture content (30-40%) and air velocity (2.4-4.8 m/s) on quality attributes such as expansion ratio, hardness, ascorbic acid loss and overall acceptability of the products were investigated. The optimum product qualities in terms of expansion ratio (4.7 times), hardness (1120.83 g), ascorbic acid loss (17.53%, db) and overall acceptability (7.56) were obtained at puffing temperature of 235.46 degrees C, puffing time of 51.11 s, initial moisture content of 36.74% and air velocity of 3.99 m/s. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.