The main objective of this work was to compare infrared blanching (IRE) with water blanching (WB) as a pretreatment method for producing lower calorie French fries. It was observed that complete inactivation of polyphenol oxidase enzyme for 9.43 mm potato strips could be achieved in 200 s and 16 min by using IRB and WB, respectively. Following the blanching, the samples were deep-fat par-fried at 174 degrees C for 1 min and were then deep-fat finish-fried at 146, 160, and 174 degrees C for 2, 3, 4 and 5 min. At all frying times and temperatures infrared blanched samples had less oil content than water blanched ones. The energy analysis of both blanching operations showed that energy expenditure-wise the operation cost for pretreating French fries with IRE would be head-to-head with WB. The final moisture contents of infrared and water blanched samples were between 40% and 50% after 5 min of finish-frying. The chromatic color components of infrared and water blanched samples were significantly (P < 0.05) affected by finish-frying time and temperature and the a* and b* values for infrared blanched samples developed faster than water blanched samples during deep-fat finish frying. (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.