Potato pulp applications

Mayer, F. (1998). Potato pulp properties, physical modification and applications. Polym. Degrad. Stab., 59,231-235. 

In countries where a strong environmental regulation for industrial wastewater exists, purification of waste streams from potato factories regarding both the fruit water and the pulp is required. Several attempts have been made to dehydrate the by-products and to utilize them for different purposes. Its high moisture content (80%) requires an expensive drying due to the problem of spoilage, if left untreated. The starch industry tries to sell as much pulp as possible as wet or partially dried cattle feed. However, the need for potato pulp by farmers is limited. Potato pulp is being used as cattle feed as well as a solid-state fermentation media for the production of different biomolecules. Conventional applications of potato pulp are listed in Table 16.2. 

Table 16.2 Conventional applications of potato pulp (Mayer, 1998) ...

Mayer, F. and Hillebrandt, J.-O. (1997) Potato pulp microbiological characterization, physical modification, and application of this agricultural waste product. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol, 4, 435 40. 

The bulk of potato tubers is made up of parenchyma cells that have thin, non-lignified, primary cell walls (Reeve et al., 1971 Bush et al, 1999, 2001 Parker et al., 2001). Unless stated to the contrary, potato cell walls refers to parenchyma cell walls. These walls and their component polysaccharides are important for a number of reasons they form part of the total intake of dietary fiber, influence the texture of cooked potato tubers and form much of the waste pulp that is produced in large amounts by the potato starch industry when starch is isolated. The pulp is usually used as cattle feed, but potentially could be processed in a variety of ways to increase its value (Mayer, 1998). For example, the whole cell-wall residues could be used as afood ingredient to alter food texture and to increase its dietary-fiber content, or cell-wall polysaccharides could be extracted and used in a similar way or for various industrial applications (Turquois et al., 1999 Dufresne et al, 2000 Harris and Smith, 2006 Kaack et al., 2006). 

Applications agar, blood, calcium carbonate, iron oxide, foodstuff strawberry pulp, potato flakes, liver extract, seaweed, flour, starch, tomato concentrate, plant extracts dyestuffs, PVC, metal salts. 

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