News on Research from Europe

Intake of foods high in acrylamide during pregnancy is associated with lower birth weight and smaller head circumference. This was revealed in an international study of the diet of 1,100 pregnant women and newborns from Denmark, England, Greece, Norway...

In yesterday's Potato Weekly the Potato Council describes the lifting procgress of the 2012 potato crop: the potato harvest in the United Kingdom is still three weeks behind last season.

“The combination of low yielding potato crops, increased crop spraying costs and increased wastage from problems such as greening, soft rots and growth cracks has massively increased the average cost of producing a tonne of potatoes in 2012 to over £20...

Fresh produce industry companies with innovative products or services are invited to apply for the FRUIT LOGISTICA Innovation Award (FLIA) An official award ceremony on 8 February 2013 will be held to announce the winners.

The European Potato Processors Association (EUPPA) general assembly has approved yesterday new statutes and elected a new board at its meeting in Brussels earlier this week. The EUPPA member companies actively process potatoes in Austria, Belgium, Fra...

At the Public University of Navarra, David Gómez Castillo carried out research for his PhD on the possibility of substituting the current use of CIPC in potato storage by treating the tuber with essential oils of mint, caraway, coriander, eucalyptus an...

Uno de los momentos críticos para la calidad final de la patata se produce durante su almacenamiento, ya que existe riesgo de brotación y pudrición por agentes patógenos como bacterias y hongos. Para evitarlo, David Gómez Castillo, ingeniero agrónomo, ...

The Potato Council Grower Panel Lifting Survey estimates that 39,000ha (32% of the total crop and just under 7,000ha greater than last week's estimate) was cleared to Friday 28 September, with the GB harvest running approximately three weeks behind las...

In April 2002, authorities, food industry, caterers and consumers were confronted by the unexpected finding that a number of heated foods contained significant levels of acrylamide, a substance known until then only as a highly reactive industrial chem...

The UK seed potato industry is on a high as Potato Council has announced another record year for seed exports, with this year’s figures surpassing 103,000 tonnes. “This year, despite the testing conditions experienced by growers, we have achieved ano...

Researchers led by Professor Bruce Fitt, now at the University of Hertfordshire, have used modern DNA techniques on late nineteenth-century potatoes to show how the potato blight may have survived between cropping seasons after the Irish potato famine ...

The days of a few big varieties dominating the potato market are over, with breeding programmes becoming more focused on delivering sustainable varieties for specific markets.

GB’s seed potato community will be coming together to keep up-to-date on plant health and variety breeding at this year’s Seed Industry Event at Crieff Hydro near Perth, Scotland on November 20.

Despite increased awareness about the risks of too much sodium in consumers’ diets and pledges from governments around the world to reduce salt levels in food, products with low/no/reduced sodium claims have seen some decline over the past years accord...

The increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere can have a positive influence on the potato yield. This is according to Anton Haverkort of Plant Research International, part of Wageningen UR, on 22 August during the bi-annual Potato Demo Day at Westmaas.

Potato growers are invited to the first North West Potato Day to be held at Aston Grange, Aston, Runcorn, Cheshire on September 18 to discuss with the experts some of the challenges they have faced this year.

Damage awareness is one of the key topics to be discussed at the North of England Potato Day to be held at Headley Hill Farm, Tadcaster, Yorkshire on September 4.

Jerry Knox from Cranfield University will discuss the lessons learnt from the wettest drought in history at the East of England Potato Day