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Introduction
In many parts of the world, potatoes are an important source of nutrition for many people – and have been for many years. Potatoes are consumed in a host of different ways – boiled, fried, mashed, cut into various shapes and mixed with other vegetables.
Potatoes are planted in early spring and harvested in late autumn. The potatoes can then be kept in a special storage clamp or some other form of storage, where it is important that the humidity and temperature are kept stable to maintain the overall quality of the potatoes.
During recent years, the market for convenience foods and snack products has become very extensive. The first potato-based snacks were just ordinary “potato chips” made from peeled potatoes that were sliced, deep-fried and mixed with herbs to enhance the taste. Later, manufacturers wanted to supply more sophisticated products, and as a result of this the potato industry developed potato granules and potato flakes.
The principle involved in producing potato granules and potato flakes is in fact very simple. In practice, however, the process is slightly more complex. First you use steam to remove the peel. You then cut the potatoes up, blanch them briefly in water, cool them and eventually boil them into a mash. Finally, you dry them in what is known as an add-back process, with commercial potato granules as the final product.
If, however, you want to produce potato flakes, the first part of the process is the same, but instead of drying the mashed potato substance in an add-back process, you use a large steam-heated drum that boils the potato mass whilst at the same time drying it into flakes. Unlike potato granules, these flakes bind water when cold, which makes it possible to use them to control the viscosity of your potato mass before you treat it further in order to produce various snacks.
Potato granules and potato flakes both contain all the components of the potato – apart from the peel and water content. You can also use potato granules and potato flakes to make mashed potato products, or croquettes and similar products.
In the Scandinavian countries, there is also a long tradition of using potato flakes – in particular – instead of starch to bind the different kinds of meat minces used to make dishes such as meatballs.
In our country, potatoes are cultivated on a very large scale in winter season, there is invariably a gult in the market during the peak season resulting in decreasing of their prices. However, in other season there is a scarcity and prices are high. As the cultivators have to sell potatoes for not having proper scope for storing all their grown potatoes in the cold storage, in less prices.
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