Industrialization of potato as a staple food has gradually made its way onto ordinary people's dining tables

In recent years, China'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 China has become the largest country in potato production and consumption. Against this background, the industrialization of potato as a staple food is particularly important. On June 1 this year, the first-generation potato steamed buns with 30% potato whole flour successfully went on the market in Beijing. Up to now, the first-generation potato steamed buns have been sold in more than 200 supermarkets in Beijing, and the manufacturer supplies more than 1 ton of potato steamed buns every day.

“The industrialization of potato as a staple food means, through the integration of nutrition, consumption, processing and production of potato staple food products, substantially raising the proportion of potatoes consumed as staple food products in total consumption, and promoting the transformation of potatoes from a coarse grain side food into a fourth major staple food developing in coordination with the three major staple grains, thereby providing important support for safeguarding national food security and accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development model.” Chen Mengshan, Party secretary of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said at the recent potato staple food development work promotion meeting.

According to Chen Mengshan, in July 2013, the Ministry of Agriculture launched work on potato staple food products and industrial development. Over the past two years, experts in the project team overcame difficulties and carried out coordinated research, overcoming technical problems such as few dedicated varieties, weak adhesion of potato whole flour, poor forming ability, lack of dedicated processing machinery, and insufficient research on nutritional efficacy, and achieved important phased progress.

The reporter learned that the expert team successfully selected 4 dedicated varieties for potato steamed buns and 5 dedicated varieties for potato noodles from 26 potato varieties in China's main potato planting regions, solving the problem of insufficient varieties suitable for processing. At the same time, they successfully raised the proportion of potato flour in traditional mass-market potato staple food products such as potato steamed buns, noodles, rice noodles and blended rice from about 10% initially to 70%, 45%, 55% and 35% respectively, greatly improving product quality and enhancing nutritional value. Through process optimization, browning during the processing of potato flour and potato mash was effectively inhibited, and a low-cost, nutritious high-quality dedicated raw flour for potato staple food products was initially developed, laying the foundation for producing high-quality potato mash suitable for processing potato staple food products.

According to Chen Mengshan, next, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences will continue to carry out scientific and technological innovation in many aspects, including variety breeding, processing technology, mechanism research and nutritional evaluation. First, dedicated varieties will be cultivated by combining conventional breeding, cytological breeding and molecular breeding to meet the processing needs of staple food products such as potato steamed buns, noodles and rice noodles. Second, high-quality potato whole flour, raw flour and dedicated flour for staple food products will be researched and developed; through combinations of different varieties of potato whole flour, wheat flour and others, research will be carried out on product quality analysis, molecular structure mechanisms and nutrient retention technology, and household cooking processes as well as factory production technologies and equipment for staple food products will be developed. With traditional mass-market staple food products such as steamed buns, noodles, rice and rice noodles as the focus, covering regionally distinctive staple food products, leisure and functional products and others, the proportion of potato whole flour in staple food products will reach more than 55%. Third, different populations and different regions will be selected to focus on guiding the consumption of traditional mass-market staple food products; the health improvement effects of consumer groups of potato staple food products will be monitored, and the nutritional efficacy of staple food products will be evaluated. Fourth, strategies and approaches for advancing potato staple food development in different main production areas and central cities will be studied. Research will focus on technologies for increasing potato yield and expanding capacity in winter fallow fields in the south, groundwater overexploitation areas in north China and dry areas in the northwest, and regional technical models for making potato a staple grain will be comprehensively integrated and demonstrated and promoted; the social, economic, ecological and nutritional benefits brought by making potato a staple food will be comprehensively tracked and evaluated; and the technology and policies for integrating nutrition, consumption and production in making potato a staple food in China will be explored.