The potato's rise has nothing to do with a food crisis
We eat potatoes,
far less than developed countries
In "Interstellar" there is a scene: in a certain year in the future, Earth's ecological environment suffers severe damage. Frequent sandstorms and other harsh weather trigger a food crisis, and staple crops such as wheat and rice are on the verge of extinction in the swirling yellow sand, leaving humans able to eat only corn to meet their daily needs. Scientists are forced to travel across many universes in search of a planet suitable for human survival.
Disasters caused by food shortages easily bring to mind the great famines that have appeared many times in history; the horrifying sight of bodies of the starved strewn across the fields is chilling. This time the potato has leapt up to become a staple food and has even been crowned “the key to saving the world from future food crises.” Does that mean our country is now facing a food crisis? On this point the Ministry of Agriculture says that making the potato a staple food is not because we do not have enough to eat, but is an important supplement to food security.
“How could our food not be enough to eat? In 2014, our National Bureau of Statistics announced that the country's total grain output reached 12142 billion jin, achieving bumper harvests for eleven consecutive years, and self-sufficiency is absolutely no problem.” Pan Wenbo, deputy director of the Ministry of Agriculture's Department of Crop Production Management, said, “I can say very responsibly that with grain output increasing year after year, supply is ample and national food security is guaranteed.”
Although our country has ample food, the situation in agricultural production is not optimistic. Pan Wenbo explains that at present our country's cultivated land, water resources and other food production resources are already very tight, and the rate of pollution exceeding standards at cultivated land soil monitoring points is close to 1/5. The old resource-consuming model of grain growth is already in an unsustainable state, and there is an urgent need to seek a breakthrough in transforming the mode of agricultural development and to find a new path in optimizing the agricultural structure.
According to information released by the World Bank, China's current total grain demand is 600 million tons, and grain demand is showing a growth trend. China's continuous increase in grain output has ensured the bottom line of “basic self-sufficiency in grains and absolute security of food rations.”
Pan Wenbo believes that at present imports of rice, wheat and corn account for only 2.4% of domestic output, and domestic grain supply and demand are basically balanced. However, maintaining this balance is extremely difficult, because by 2020 the increase in our country's grain demand will reach more than 100 billion jin, but constrained by cultivated land resources and affected by planting returns, the room for continued increases in output of ration varieties such as wheat and rice is shrinking. “Under these circumstances, proposing the development of the potato as a staple food is of very great significance for safeguarding national food security. Moreover, the connotation of food security includes not only the supply and self-sufficiency of grain, but also the diversity of the food structure.”
Pan Wenbo says that making the potato a staple food, for ensuring national food security, is not timely help in a snowstorm but an added embellishment on brocade - it lets ordinary people eat better, more nutritiously and more healthily.
Pan Libing, deputy director of the Ministry of Agriculture's Bureau of Agricultural Product Processing, explains that the potato is cold-tolerant, drought-tolerant and highly adaptable, making it easier to grow; it belongs to the “four-saving” crops that “save water, save fertilizer, save pesticide and save effort.” In the arid and semi-arid regions of the northwest, the potato can not only grow normally but also reduce soil and water loss. Our country's average potato yield is lower than the world average, at about one third that of developed countries, and per capita potato consumption is only 14 kg, far below that of developed countries.
Hundreds of supermarkets in Beijing,
are selling potato steamed buns
Dai Xiaofeng, elected chairman of the National Potato Staple Food Processing Industry Alliance, told reporters that the weaker link in the potato industry at present is the processing stage.
Compared with wheat, corn and rice, the potato has many advantages and is inherently qualified to be a staple food, but it also has some shortcomings. For example, 85% of wheat is dry matter, but 70% of a potato is water; to make whole flour, using potatoes as raw material takes 5 to 6 times as much as wheat, so costs cannot come down, and with a high selling price there is no market. Fresh tubers have high water content, do not store well and are inconvenient to transport. In addition, at present our country's processing costs for potatoes are too high, and the industrial utilisation rate is only 20%, while abroad it has already reached more than 50%.
“At present our country's potato staple food research and development team has carried out trial production of staple food products such as potato pasta and spicy soup, completed research on the effect of whole flour addition on the rheological properties of potato dough, preliminarily determined a trial plan for evaluating the nutritional efficacy of steamed buns containing 40% potato whole flour, successfully produced instant potato rice noodles with a 55% proportion, and applied for 20 related patents.” Dai Xiaofeng explains that at present our country's processing costs for potatoes are too high, and the industrial utilisation rate is only 20%, while abroad it has already reached more than 50%. At present, from national teams to local teams in our country, research and development projects and investment in potatoes are insufficient. After the potato staple food strategy was launched, the industry will enjoy more preferential policies, and new progress has also been made in scientific research.
In recent years, our country's potato production has continued to develop steadily. In 2014 the planted area reached 5.57 million hectares, accounting for about one quarter of the world's total, and our country has become the number one country in potato production and consumption. Against this background, the industrialisation of the potato as a staple food is particularly important.
“By comparatively testing and analysing the nutrient content of potato staple foods and the content of trace nutrients such as vitamins and minerals and dietary fibre, we found that the nutritional value of staple food products such as potato steamed buns and noodles is higher than that of traditional staple food products such as wheat steamed buns and noodles.” Dai Xiaofeng explains that our country's potato production has continued to develop steadily in recent years. In 2014 the planted area reached 5.57 million hectares, accounting for about one quarter of the world's total, and our country has become the number one country in potato production and consumption. This summer, the first generation of potato steamed buns with 30% potato whole flour was successfully launched in Beijing. As of now, the first generation of potato steamed buns has been sold in several hundred supermarkets in Beijing, and manufacturers produce and supply more than 1 ton of potato steamed buns every day.
Now, our country's potato planting area is gradually expanding. It is expected that by 2020, more than 50% of our country's potatoes will be consumed as a staple food. Compared with wheat, corn and rice, potato whole flour can be stored longer, and can be kept at room temperature for more than 15 years. Some countries list potato whole flour as a strategic reserve grain. Many experts believe that as the global population grows rapidly, when a world food crisis occurs in the future, only the potato can save humanity.
It seems that “Mr. Potato” has not only achieved a successful comeback, but will also shoulder the major responsibility of saving humanity in the future.
For potatoes to reach the dining table,
diversification is what creates a market
More than 400 years have passed since the potato was introduced to our country in the mid-sixteenth century and became widely planted, but it has mostly been eaten fresh as a vegetable. Does this mean that making the potato a staple food lacks a “mass base”? On this point, researcher Zhang Hong, chief scientist of the Traditional Food Processing and Equipment Team at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences' Institute of Agricultural Product Processing and a core lead expert on the special project for research and development of potato staple food processing technology and equipment, believes that the reason the potato has so far failed to become a true staple food in our country is partly the factor of traditional dietary consumption habits, and also because the public does not know enough about the potato's nutritional value. Affected by these two factors, breeding of special potato varieties suitable for processing has been insufficient, and research and development of the corresponding formulas, processes and equipment for processing into staple foods has been insufficient, so industrialisation development lags behind.
“Potatoes contain no gluten protein, so when making staple food products such as steamed buns and noodles, there are problems such as difficulty in forming, slow proofing, great hardness, and noodles that break easily and do not withstand boiling.” Zhang Hong explains that the potato is different from corn, rice and wheat; the latter three are granular, easily dehydrated and have a longer shelf life. The potato, however, is a large block, and if kept whole it is very hard to dehydrate and easily spoils.
At present, our country's potato staple food research and development team has successfully selected 4 special potato varieties for steamed buns and 5 special potato varieties for noodles from among 26 potato varieties in our country's main potato growing regions, solving the problem of insufficient varieties suitable for processing. At the same time, it has successfully raised the potato flour proportion in traditional mass-market staple food products such as potato steamed buns, noodles, rice noodles and blended rice from about 10% initially to 70%, 45%, 55% and 35%, greatly improving product quality and enhancing nutritional value. Through process optimisation, browning during the processing of potato flour and potato mash has been effectively suppressed, and a cheap, nutritious, high-quality special raw flour for potato staple foods has been preliminarily developed, laying the foundation for producing high-quality potato mash suitable for processing potato staple food products. The research and development team has also carried out trial production of staple food products such as potato pasta and spicy soup, and completed research on the effect of whole flour addition on the rheological properties of potato dough. At the same time it has also developed a series of products such as self-raising flour for potato steamed buns and blended flour for potato noodles, so in the future ordinary people can also make foods such as potato steamed buns and noodles at home.
With the launch of the potato staple food strategy, related scientific research investment has increased. At present, staple food products such as steamed buns, noodles and rice noodles with more than 30% potato whole flour, as well as leisure foods such as bread, and instant noodle products with an 18% proportion, have been successfully developed, and these products have great advantages in taste and appearance. At present our country has a lot of industrially packaged potato whole flour in large packages but little in small packages commonly used by ordinary households. In the future, supermarkets will offer all kinds of potato flour in large and small packages, raw and cooked, purple and pink.
In the future there may even be “coloured whole flour.” It is worth mentioning that the compressed biscuits commonly seen in the military have potato as their main ingredient; in the future, after improvement with brand-new technology, the taste of compressed biscuits will be greatly improved.
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Steaming and boiling,
are the best ways to eat potatoes
In the eyes of nutritionists, the potato's rich nutritional value is most praiseworthy. Yang Xiaoguang of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene of the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine explains that our usual staple food sources are mainly rice and wheat, and after milling and processing, the two lose a great deal of B vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre, causing serious nutritional loss. Using the potato as a staple food can improve this problem, because the potato contains rich dietary fibre, vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C and minerals, 16.5% high-quality starch, and also a large amount of lignin and so on, giving it higher nutritional value for the human body. More importantly, the potato loses relatively little nutrition during processing; its rich starch can provide the calories the human body needs and enhance satiety, and it is known as the “second bread” and the “underground apple,” and it also has a nutrient that the three major staple grains do not - carotene. “The dietary structure of the urban population is changing. According to the results of our research surveys on urban residents' diets in recent years, the nutrients lacking in the urban population can all be obtained from potatoes.”
Some people worry that after the potato becomes a staple food, it will mean “boiling a big potato to gnaw on every day, or stir-frying a plate of shredded potato at every meal,” and that everyday staple food must be potato. On this point Yang Xiaoguang says it is only a supplementary choice within the current staple food structure. As potato deep-processing technology becomes more and more mature, ordinary people can completely eat potatoes without changing their eating habits; for example, adding an appropriate amount of potato flour to the noodles and steamed buns we are used to eating makes a very ideal staple food.
Because potatoes are hard to store, deep-frying them is a very common practice: cut into thin strips they become the French fries found on streets everywhere, and cut into thin slices they become the potato chips filling supermarket shelves. Yang Xiaoguang explains that after potatoes are fried they produce a substance called acrylamide, which is a carcinogen. This carcinogen can be produced not only by fried potatoes, but in any high-temperature processed food containing starch and carbohydrates. “In fact, there are simply too many ways to eat potatoes. The best ways are steaming and boiling. Although the taste is not as good as frying, less nutrition is lost and it is healthier for the human body.”