Assessing the Processing Quality of Different Potato Cultivars during Storage at Various Temperatures

Processing industry needs continuous supply of tubers for fries/chips preparation throughout the year. Storage is obligatory to meet the increasing demand of population. Objective of this study was to evaluate the processing and quality characteristics of different potato cultivars (Lady Rosetta, Sant, Hermes, Crozo, Kuroda and Asterix) during storage with 75-80% relative humidity for the period of 160 days at various temperatures (3 degrees C, 7 degrees C, 11 degrees C). Quality parameters such as specific gravity, sprouting, weight loss, dry matter, starch content, ascorbic acid, sugar content and invertase enzyme activity were determined to estimate the processing potential of each cultivar. High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) equipped with amino (NH2) column and Refractive Index Detector (RID) was used for the identification and quantification of sugars. The findings of the present work showed that temperature significantly (p < 0.05) influenced the processing quality throughout the storage. Low temperature (3 degrees C) storage caused cold induced sweetening (CIS) due to increased invertase activity whereas, high temperature resulted in sprouting and weight loss of the tubers. Overall processing acceptability for all the cultivars with good frying color was obtained at an intermediate storage temperature of 7 degrees C in the order of Lady Rosetta > Hermes > Crozo > Sante > Asterix > Kuroda.