What new developments have emerged in China's food security?
Recently, a kind of potato steamed bun——also called potato bun, quietly appeared and sold well in more than 200 supermarkets in Beijing. It is understood that by October this year, the sales range will also expand to more than 500 supermarkets in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
The introduction of this steamed bun, which looks slightly yellow and is not very different from traditional wheat steamed buns, does not simply mean the emergence of a new food product. Behind it is a major change in China's food security pattern over thousands of years -- potatoes may become the fourth major staple crop after the three major staple crops of wheat, rice, and corn. A new proposition concerning the issue of feeding 1.3 billion people is beginning to unfold.
A breakthrough work in development strategy, using more than 800 kg of potato flour for experiments
⟦NL> Vice Minister of Agriculture Yu Xinrong said that potato staple-ization refers to processing potatoes into staple food products such as steamed buns, noodles, and rice noodles, realizing a change from today's non-staple food consumption to staple food consumption.
The potato steamed bun is the first staple food product to appear after the Ministry of Agriculture publicly announced the potato staple-ization development strategy at the beginning of this year. It was successfully developed by a specialized five-person team at the Institute of Food Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences after nearly two years. This project is regarded as the breakthrough work of the potato staple-ization strategy.
On the second floor of the Huantingting store of Beijing Wumart Hypermarket, bags of potato steamed buns containing three buns each are displayed together with traditional wheat steamed buns. From the outside, compared with wheat steamed buns, potato steamed buns show no major difference except for a slight difference in color. “When they first arrived, they were five yuan and eighty cents per bag. Starting yesterday, there was a special price, and you can buy one bag for four yuan and twenty cents.” The salesperson on site said that currently 20 to 30 bags can be sold a day, and customers are mainly looking for freshness and trying something new.
“The taste is slightly sweet, and the texture is a bit dry and powdery. I think it's pretty good.” Mr. Qin, who had just tried it, commented.
Mu Taihua, chief scientist of the potato processing innovation team at the Institute of Food Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who is in charge of the project's research and development, said that the project started in 2013. The entire project involved three institutions, including the Ministry of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Development Research location. More than ten people from the potato processing innovation team at the Institute of Food Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences participated, of whom five were specifically responsible for developing potato steamed buns, while others were responsible for developing other varieties such as stuffed buns and pastries.
Mu Taihua told a “Xinhua Viewpoint” reporter that the most difficult part of development was pilot testing, that is, the process from laboratory formula to factory automated production. They found an enterprise in Beijing to conduct small-scale trials, once with a quantity of more than 20 kg, and it took more than 40 trials to complete. Because potato flour has high viscosity, it easily sticks to the rollers of the steamed bun forming machine, and can only be picked out by hand or scraped off with a scraper. Each cleaning took more than two hours.
Yu Xinrong believes that the reason potatoes have not become a staple food for a long time is the “three lacks”: first, domestic potato consumption has always been mainly fresh eating, lacking staple food products suitable for China's steaming and cooking food culture; second, there is a lack of specialized potato varieties and processing techniques suitable for Chinese staple food products such as noodles, rice, and rice noodles; third, the public mostly regards potatoes as a food to fill the stomach and satisfy hunger, and there is a lack of social conditions to guide consumption as a staple food.
The proposal of the potato staple-ization strategy and the success of potato steamed buns may change the above situation.
“We developed a new type of steamed bun through the composite of potato flour and wheat flour. This shows that potatoes can also be used to make a series of products suitable for Chinese traditional food culture. It is feasible for potatoes to become a staple food.” Mu Taihua said.
Is the inclusion of potatoes as a staple food because there is not enough food to eat?
Relevant personnel believe that promoting potatoes to become China's fourth major staple crop is aimed at addressing the contradiction between the rigid increase in future food demand and the difficulty of increasing the production of ration varieties, and at developing a new path to safeguard national food security. The Ministry of Agriculture predicts that potatoes are nutritious and, after becoming a staple food, can provide 400 billion jin of food supply in the future.
Information from the Ministry of Agriculture shows that this year China's summer grain planting area reached 415 million mu, an increase of more than 1 million mu over the previous year. Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu believes that this year's winter wheat production situation is relatively good, and summer grain output is expected to achieve a “twelfth consecutive bumper harvest” on the basis of last year's high increase.
Although China's grain harvest has continued and the grain production situation is improving, this cannot conceal the pressure China's food security will face in the future. Experts predict that for a fairly long period in the future, China's food consumption demand will still trend toward rigid growth, and by 2020 the increase in food demand will be more than 100 billion jin. However, constrained by cultivated land and water resources and affected by planting efficiency, the cost of continuing to increase production of ration varieties such as wheat and rice is rising, the room for growth is shrinking, and the difficulty is increasing. To safeguard China's food security, it is necessary to develop new paths for increasing production.
“Potatoes are cold-resistant, drought-resistant, and tolerant of barren soil, with wide adaptability. Potatoes can be planted in most areas from south to north and from high altitude to low altitude, especially by developing and utilizing winter fallow fields in the south, where the potential for expanding potato planting is very large.” Yu Xinrong said that from the perspective of water conservation alone, potato development requires little water, and its minimum transpiration coefficient is only 350, while wheat and rice are 450 and 500 respectively, which makes it a possible main crop for rain-fed agriculture. In the arid and semi-arid areas of the northwest with annual precipitation of around 350 mm, grain crops have difficulty growing and developing, but potatoes can grow normally. “The Ministry of Agriculture organized experiments in Hengshui, Hebei. In the North China groundwater overexploitation area with annual precipitation of 500 mm, under completely rain-fed conditions, potato yield per mu still reached 1.8 tons.”
According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, the theoretical yield of potatoes per mu can reach 8 tons, while currently China's average is only a little more than 1 ton. In the future, without crowding out the three major staple crops, planting can be expanded to 150 million mu, and by promoting high-yield, efficient, and sustainable technical models, the yield per mu can be raised to 2 tons. In this way, annual fresh potato output can increase by 200 million tons, that is, 400 billion jin, roughly equivalent to one third of the country's total grain output in 2014.
In Mu Taihua's view, potatoes as a staple food also have the advantage of being nutritious. He said: “From a nutritional perspective, the nutritional components of potatoes are very comprehensive, and the nutritional structure is also relatively balanced. They not only contain protein and calcium, but are also rich in vitamin B, vitamin C, and various minerals.”
From non-staple food to staple food, how many hurdles must be passed for a “gorgeous transformation”?
After being on the market for nearly a month, potato steamed buns have performed well in the market. Li Lianggong, deputy general manager of Beijing Haileida Food Co., Ltd., which is promoting the project, told reporters that potato steamed buns have already been released in more than 240 supermarkets in Beijing, with monthly sales of about 5.5 million yuan to 6 million yuan. At the highest point, 800 to 900 bags of 350 grams each could be sold in a day, with average daily sales at the level of 500 to 600 bags. Now that the weather is hot, it is the off-season for sales. After the weather turns cold in autumn, sales during the peak season for steamed buns should increase substantially.
“Currently, potato steamed bun sales account for 1% of our steamed bun sales, and the market response is good. Our goal is to launch some new products in October, expand stores in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to 500, and reach daily sales of two tons.” Li Lianggong said.
However, the reporter's interviews found that for potatoes to truly and completely become a staple food, they must pass at least “three hurdles” ahead.
——The first hurdle is the need for techniques and materials that make it convenient for millions of households to prepare. One prerequisite for potatoes to become a staple food is that they can be conveniently made into foods suited to each family's own tastes, just as wheat flour is used to make steamed buns and rice is cooked into rice. Potato flour is not like wheat flour. At present, there are difficulties such as difficult fermentation, difficult shaping, high viscosity, and easy cracking.
Mu Taihua told reporters that his team is trying to develop a leavening agent formula for household use. “The goal is that after this leavening agent is developed, as long as the processing method is noted on the packaging, the public can process the food they need at home according to the instructions.”
——The second hurdle is that the price must be affordable for ordinary people. A salesperson at the Huantingting store of Wumart Hypermarket told reporters that at present, compared with wheat steamed buns, potato steamed buns in the promotion stage are almost twice as expensive. Li Lianggong said this is mainly because potato flour is expensive. Recently, wheat flour was about three to four thousand yuan per ton, while potato flour was at least nine thousand yuan per ton.
——The third hurdle is that it needs to gain consumer acceptance and recognition. Relevant experts suggest that China is vast in territory, and eating habits and styles vary greatly among regions. For potatoes to become a staple food, there must be products with diverse styles and different tastes that meet the diversified needs of different groups and different regions, so that they can gain consumer recognition and be accepted. Li Lianggong said: “On the one hand, this requires publicity and guidance; on the other hand, it also depends on the market. To reach the level of popularity of wheat steamed buns, it is estimated that it will take until 2020.”
At the same time, some experts also proposed that basic research on potato processing needs to be strengthened. “For example, the issue of fermentation. Wheat contains gluten protein, which makes it easy to ferment and expand, while potatoes do not contain this protein and are not as easy to ferment as wheat. This requires basic research to solve.” Mu Taihua said.