Quality of Potatoes for Processing and the effect of Potato Storage; Some Basics
Earlier this week I looked over
the older PotatoPro Newsletters and the topics that we have
covered in each newsletter.
I concluded it was time to
pay attention to one of the key aspects of potato
processing, often underestimated and by those new to the
industry sometimes even totally overlooked: the quality of the potato.
Quality requirements of Potatoes for Processing
The quality of the potato and the special requirements that there are for the main groups of
potato products.
Whenever someone inquires about a production line for
chips or french fries I try to find an opportunity to
inquire about their access to potatoes suitable for
processing and their knowledge about this aspect.
There are two main properties that can make or break the quality of your processed products - and as a result the success of a processing operation: reducing sugar content and dry matter content
Reducing sugar content
The amount of reducing sugars in the potato is responsible for the colour formation of the fried products.
So if potatoes are to high in reducing sugars, they are not suitable for processing.
The maximum limits differ somewhat by product.
Acceptable weight in water values depending on final product