Simplex-centroid design reveals starch blend combine governing oil migration and sensory flavour of fried batter-coated meat strips.

Batter-coated meat strips (BCMSs) suffer from excessive oil absorption, which impairs their sensory performance and nutritional quality. In this study, ten coating formulas composed of potato, corn and tapioca native starches were constructed using a simplex-centroid mixture design. Multiple analytical techniques including low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LF-NMR), confocal laser-scanning microscopy (CLSM), check-all-that-apply (CATA), temporal dominance of sensations (TDS), and solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) were applied to characterise oil-absorption behaviour, micro-scale fat distribution, dynamic consumer sensory responses and volatile flavour profiles. Starch blending ratios significantly affected the dry-basis oil content of BCMSs (P < 0.05). The binary blend containing 50 % potato starch and 50 % tapioca starch (P1T1) yielded the minimum oil content of 20.19 %, whereas the single corn-starch coating (C1) resulted in the highest oil content of 31.98 %. Oil penetration primarily took place during the post-frying cooling stage driven by capillary negative-pressure. The ternary blend P4C1T1 (66.67 % potato, 16.67 % corn, 16.67 % tapioca starch) delivered optimal crisp-tender texture and achieved the highest consumer preference score of 7.73, with a total of 55 volatile flavour compounds detected. Corn-starch-dominated coatings formed loose porous networks and facilitated oil infiltration into the meat core. In contrast, potato-tapioca blended coatings generated compact gel barriers that retarded oil-water migration. This work reveals the intrinsic relationships among starch proportion, crust microstructure, oil-water transfer and sensory-flavour characteristics, and provides theoretical support for developing low-oil coating systems for fried meat products.