Potato product quality

For more detailed discussion of potato product quality assessment and assurance, the book Total Quality Assurance for the Food Industries (Gould, 2001) is essential reading, and for frozen French fried potatoes we especially recommend Hui s chapter of the Handbook of Vegetable Preservation and Processing (Hui, 2004). 

Many in the pharmaeeutieal industry will recall the Wall Street Journal artiele that deelared the manufacture of potato ehips more teehnologieally advanced than the manufacture of pharmaeeutieals." This may seem a harsh criticism, but it is honest. Dissolution has been used to test drug product quality since the... 

The influence of the oil type and quality on oil absorption and residues absorbed by fried foods is widely documented (e.g., Blumenthal, 1991 Blumenthal and Stier, 1991 Krokida et al., 2000 Nonaka et al, 1977 Pokomy, 1980). No relationship has been found between oil type and oil absorption however, it has been shown that an increase in the initial interfacial tension between oil and restructured potato products decreases oil absorption (Pinthus and Saguy, 1994). Further, as mentioned earlier, oil degradation produces surfactants that act as wetting agents, which also increase the absorption (Blumenthal, 1991). 

Looking back also over the historical development of quality requirements for processed foods, freezing when properly carried out is undoubtedly the most satisfactory method for the longterm preservation of vegetable produce. The low temperatures commonly prescribed for frozen foods (—18°C) can maintain initial quality and nutritional value practically unchanged, so that frozen and fresh vegetable products differ only in texture (Canet, 1989), which is however a particularly important quality attribute in potato products. 

In frozen vegetables, health quality, nutritional quality, and aspects of sensory quality like color and texture can be objectively assessed and controlled also, in frozen potato products the effects of the thermal treatments included in the process have to be assessed due to their influence on texture, color, and nutritional value. However, in the case of overall assessment of sensory quality, only the consumer can perceive and process the overall blend of sensations that denote quality and cause consumers to prefer, accept, or reject a product. 

The product factors briefly mentioned in the previous section constitute an important field of research given the considerable influence they have on the final quality of potato products, a... 

A more detailed discussion of potato tuber quality can be found in Chapter 16 of the book Potato Production Systems (Stark and Love, 2003b). 

Texture is a key component of the quality and palatability of potato products. Texture is generally quantified by measuring the resistance of a product to an applied force. A number of different rheological parameters can be used to evaluate a range of tuber characteristics such as firmness, hardness, softness, adhesiveness, fracturability, etc. There is a considerable amount... 

Stark, J. C, Olsen, N., Kleinkopf, G. E. and Love, S. L. Tuber Quality, (2003a) www.ag.uidaho.edu/potato/ production/files/TUBERQUALITY-web.pdf... 

An understanding of physicochemical and structural properties of starch will offer the possibility to control the quality of potato and potato products (e.g. digestibility), and to produce new potato starches with added value. As a result, it is critical to understand and apply advanced analytical techniques to characterize and evaluate the quality of potatoes and potato starch. In this chapter, the advanced analytical techniques to evaluate the quality of potatoes and potato starch are introduced and discussed in detail. 

Tarn, T. R., Tai, G. C. C., Liu, Q. (2006). Quality improvement. In J. Gopal, S. M. Paul Khurana (Eds.), Handbook of Potato Production, Improvement, and Postharvest Management (pp. 147-178). Food Products Press, New York, London, Oxford. 

Potato taste is not characterized by one of the primary taste sensations. Especially sweet, sour or bitter notes are considered off-flavors. However, free amino acids and 5 -nucleotides are important compounds that convey an agreeable basic taste to potato products. The amino acids occur naturally in free form the 5 -nucleotides are liberated during the heat preparation of potatoes by a specific enzymatic degradation of RNA. Starch forms a matrix for all potato preparations. Although it is tasteless, is has an influence on taste quality due to textural characteristics, and due to its pronounced capability to form stable complexes with flavor compounds either in a thermal gradient or under isothermal conditions. 

Potatoes are washed with clean, cold water to remove the mud, sand, and so on from the surface. These extraneous materials not only show adverse effects on the product quality, but also they damage the oil in the fryer during the process. 

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