Apart from the post-harvest storage in warehouses, DODIlog focuses on the final raw potatoes storage in containers/packages (boxes, sacks,...). The aim is to ensure they remain fresh, without contamination and early sprouting. The focus is therefore only on some stages of the whole chain where technological solutions like the Muli-gas e-Nose and Sub-THz could be applied. Learn more here (Discover where the DODILog technologies can be applied in the logistics flow processes for cereals and potatoes).
INDUSTRIAL PROCESSING
The industrial processing of potatoes into finished products (e.g. fries, chips, mashed potatoes...) follows a series of precise steps to guarantee quality and food safety. The following steps should be taken into account:
- Receiving and cleaning: the potatoes arrive from the field and are cleaned of sand, stones, foliage, and other impurities.
- Washing: the tubers are thoroughly washed to remove any remaining dirt.
- Peeling: potatoes are peeled, often using steam or scrubbing techniques.
- Sorting and Inspection: damaged or defective potatoes are removed. Potatoes are sorted by size (for example, whole table potatoes for fries).
- Cutting/Shaping: depending on the final product, the potatoes are cut into fries, slices (for chips), cubes, or grated.
- Blanching: the cut potatoes are briefly heated in water or steam. This releases an inactive enzyme, improves the color (prevents browning), and ensures a uniform texture. Drug: If you overload your word and it's white, it's crucial that you have a product (and it's named after you fry it).
- Food (optional): your fries come with a few dishes you can eat in oil.
- Final processing (Baking/Drying/Mashing): the potatoes are further processed into the end product: frying (fries), high-temperature frying (chips), drying (granules/flakes), cooking and mashing.
- Packaging and Storage: the finished product is packaged, often under a protective atmosphere, and stored for transport.
INDUSTRIAL STORAGE
There are various steps to be considered in the storage process. The storage of potatoes starts from the moment they are brought into storage and goes through various steps:
- Ventilation: ventilating from Day 1
Potato storage starts as soon as the first potatoes are brought into the warehouse. Depending on the time of day, the potatoes will enter the shed warmer or colder. From the first day, it is important that all potatoes have as uniform a temperature as possible. Internal ventilation ensures an even temperature throughout the entire batch. This allows you to open the door to remove moist air. Equalizing the temperature and internal ventilation is necessary if the shed is not full.
- Drying. For varieties that are more difficult to store, such as Fontane and Challenger for example, or when batches contain a lot of moisture, it is important to get the potatoes dry as quickly as possible. Potatoes can be dried in several ways:
° Ventilating with air that is colder than the potatoes always has a drying effect.
° Drying with air that is slightly warmer than the potatoes themselves, provided that the relative humidity is low enough so that the air absorbs the moisture.
° Heating cold air with a hot air blower, setting the temperature of the blower 1 to 2°C higher than the potatoes. - photo 1 (hot air blower)
When using colder air, ensure that the temperature does not drop too sharply – preferably not below 12°C during the first few weeks – so that there remain sufficient periods with colder outside air. The potatoes are dry when the adhering soil is dry, which can be checked at a depth of 30 cm to ensure that no more rot is appearing.
- Wound healing. During harvesting and storage, potatoes sustain damage such as cracks or peeling. These must therefore heal. The speed of the wound healing process depends on the potato temperature:
° The optimal temperature is between 12 and 15°C, and wound healing takes about 2 to 3 weeks.
° At lower temperatures, wound healing proceeds more slowly.
° At temperatures above 15°C, fungi or bacteria can develop.
- Cooling. Cooling down to the desired storage temperature can start as soon as the potatoes are dry and wound healing is complete. The target temperature is 7 to 8°C for most varieties that are used for the production of French fries.
° Try to cool the potatoes gradually and systematically using cold outside air at a rate of 1 to 2 degrees per week.
° Avoid the temperature rising again in between, for example during a few warmer nights.
° Try to have the potatoes at the right temperature by early December or by the time sprout inhibition needs to be applied for the first time.
(Source : https://inagro.be)/
