How can potato staple foods reach more people's dining tables

Have you ever eaten noodles made from potatoes? Two years ago, if someone had asked you this, you would have been especially surprised: how could potatoes possibly be made into a staple food? But now, people can not only buy all kinds of potato staple food products in supermarkets, but have also brought them to the dining table.

In 2015, China proposed a strategy for developing potato staple food products, focusing on cultivating the public's habit of consuming nutritious and healthy potato staple foods. In less than two years, potato staple food products went from a niche novelty to a popular trend, and the staple food industry has also become a lever and breakthrough point for implementing the transformation of agricultural development modes and structural adjustment and promoting the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries. The potato industry has already become a sunrise industry.

The development of potato staple foods cannot be separated from the leadership of scientific and technological innovation. As the national team in agricultural scientific research, the Institute of Food Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has long made outstanding contributions to the development of the potato staple food industry. Recently, reporters entered the Institute of Food Science and Technology to uncover how scientific and technological innovation is leading the path of potato staple food development.

Overcoming key processing technologies, potato staple foods finally take shape

Nutritious potatoes were introduced into China more than 400 years ago. Although they had long been regarded as a staple food abroad, in China they have always been mainly eaten fresh. Data show that China is a major potato producer, not a strong processing country. Processed products account for less than 10% of total output, and staple food products are almost nonexistent. This has also led to China's potato industry being relatively backward with low output value.

"On the one hand, influenced by China's traditional dietary consumption habits, potatoes are mostly used as a vegetable, and people do not fully understand their nutritional value. On the other hand, because potato processing technology has long been difficult to break through, potatoes cannot be made into staple foods such as noodles and steamed buns using traditional techniques, which also directly affects their becoming a staple grain," said Dai Xiaofeng, director of the Institute of Food Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. "With the upgrading of consumption and changes in dietary structure, people today are paying more and more attention to eating healthily and safely, and making potatoes into staple foods precisely fits this trend."

So, how difficult is it for potatoes to become a staple food? "Potatoes do not contain gluten protein. When making staple food products such as steamed buns and noodles, there are problems such as difficulty in forming, difficulty in proofing, high hardness, and noodles that easily break and do not tolerate boiling. Solving these is not easy." Researcher Zhang Hong, who has long been engaged in research on traditional food processing and equipment, is the chief scientist of the innovation team at the Institute of Food Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and also a core member of the national potato staple grain research group. He told reporters that research and innovation in processing technology and equipment are the difficulty and the key to realizing potato staple food development. As long as the processing problems are solved, the path of potatoes as a staple food will become much easier.

Starting in 2013, Zhang Hong led a scientific research team to begin research on potato staple food processing technology and equipment. After tens of thousands of experiments, they finally succeeded in cracking the technical problems in staple food processing. In January 2015, with the launch of China's potato staple food strategy, the first-generation staple food product developed by the Institute of Food Science and Technology, containing 35% potato flour, came out. After that, complete sets of equipment such as an integrated bionic noodle rolling machine, an industrialized potato noodle production line, and a staple food compound flour production line were also developed one after another. Second- and third-generation potato staple food products appeared in succession, and the potato flour content has now been raised to 55%. Substantial progress has also been made in directly processing staple foods using low-cost mashed potato or raw potatoes.

Scientific and technological achievements take root in enterprises, and staple food development drives the development of the entire industry

In potato staple food development research, the Institute of Food Science and Technology formed more than 120 patents and 8 major technologies. However, to let people eat potato staple food products and drive the development of the entire industry, laboratory results also need to be promoted as quickly as possible. Since 2015, Zhang Hong has cooperated with enterprises. In Beijing, Hebei, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanghai and other regions alone, more than 50 enterprises have participated in potato staple food industry development. At present, there are 22 potato staple food processing production lines nationwide.

With the promotion of technology and the participation of enterprises, all kinds of Chinese-style potato staple food products with unique flavors have been continuously developed. According to statistics, China has now formed more than 200 kinds of potato staple food products in five major categories: steamed bun products, noodle products, extruded products, pastry products and local specialty products. Some products have even been exported to the Middle East, making the "Belt and Road" resonate.

"Breakthroughs in processing technology give potato staple food products more opportunities to reach the public dining table," Dai Xiaofeng told reporters. Among agricultural products, the potato staple food processing industry is the easiest in which to realize the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries. "Once the entire industrial chain is connected and added value rises, and the whole industry develops, potatoes can help more farmers escape poverty and become prosperous."

Zhang Hong said with emotion that the advent of potato staple foods shakes the entire industrial chain. Now, from breeding special varieties for potato staple foods, to researching potato cultivation techniques, to research on processing, storage and transportation technologies, the previously quiet industrial chain has been fully activated. Today, in many major potato-producing areas, a complete set of integrated technologies from planting to harvesting to processing has even been formed.

In addition to promoting technology, the scientific research team also helps local areas plan industries. As a major potato-producing area, with the advancement of the staple food strategy, the Ningxia potato industry has begun to upgrade. At present, Zhang Hong and his team are formulating a future industrial development blueprint for Guyuan, Ningxia, hoping to combine staple food products with local cultural tourism so that potatoes can truly become people's "wealth potatoes."

The future of the staple food industry is broad, and scientific and technological support will continue to be strong

It is predicted that in the coming years, market demand for potatoes will still show obvious growth, and the impact on industry development will also be very significant. Zhang Hong analyzed that by 2015, the potato staple food strategy will promote the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and the added value of the agricultural product processing industry is expected to exceed 300 billion yuan. Calculated on the basis of an increase of 300 yuan in benefit per mu of potatoes, with a sown area of 150 million mu, potato farmers' net income from growing potatoes is expected to increase by 45 billion yuan.

"Potato staple food development not only drives the entire potato industry, but can actually also drive and raise the level of our entire agricultural product processing industry. This is because much of the processing equipment that can be used to make potato staple foods can almost all be used on other crops as well," Zhang Hong said with emotion.

Although the prospects are broad, Zhang Hong said that as the national team for potato staple food processing, future scientific research tasks still have a long way to go: "On the one hand, we need to strengthen research and development of Chinese-style potato staple food processing equipment, and at the same time, through technical improvements, reduce the cost of staple food processing and study the patterns between raw materials and the formation of product quality. On the other hand, we also need to work hard on research into the suitability of potato processing varieties, providing a scientific basis for breeders to breed more special varieties suitable for processing."

At present, Zhang Hong's team is also intensively researching testing technologies such as evaluation and authenticity identification of potato staple food products. "Potato staple foods are becoming more and more popular in the market, and more and more enterprises are participating. What counts as a potato staple food product and how potato staple foods should be classified urgently require a complete set of industry standards and testing and inspection methods and means to provide technical guarantees for products entering the market and for government supervision. We still have a lot of work to do."

And as China's potato staple food industry will expand from production areas to consumption areas in the future, that is, from the southwest, northwest, northeast and other regions to China's southeast coast, in order to produce staple food products more suitable for southern dietary habits, in the future, Zhang Hong and his scientific research team will continue to advance in scientific research tackling and will devote even more effort to the development of China's potato industry.