Over the past 5 years growing demands for reducing fat content of fried foods have greatly stimulated the amount of research spent on the issue of fat uptake during deep-fat frying. The results of these efforts are summarized in this review. Most of the increased understanding of the mechanism of fat uptake has been brought about by improved imaging techniques. It turns out that fat uptake is basically determined by two mechanisms: the condensation effect and the capillary effect. Major reductions claimed in literature and patents are found for coating and batter formulations using various types of biopolymers.