There are few more important food in the world than the potatoes. Potato is the staple food for

2/3rd of the world population. The per capita consumption is very high in European countries

where potato is a major food crop. India is presently the 3rd largest potato growing country in the

world.

India is the 3rd largest potato producer in the world, after China at #1 and Russia at #2 and before the United States at #4. Potato production increased more than 850% since 1960, due to both increased production area and yield. The per Capita Potato consumption in India has risen from 12 kg/capita/year in the early nineties to over 16 kg/capita now, with a slight decline in recent years (Source: FAOSTAT)

However, the potato processing industry is expanding fast:

The sector developing most rapidly is the snack foods sector, including potato chips. Market leader is Frito-lay with a 45 % market share. Haldiram's has a 27% market share. The market is far from stable: recently ITC , an IT/cigarette company making huge inroad in the CPG market, has managed to get a market share of 11% with its potato chip "Bingo" in just 6 month.

PRODUCT AND ITS USES :

Potato Flakes are produced/ exported/ imported/ traded around the world for use as an ingredient in various snack foods as also in stand-alone consumer packages for domestic use at the table in a variety of dishes. Since this does away with the otherwise dirty and tiresome chores of selecting and buying potatoes, washing, cleaning, peeling, boiling, cooling etc., the product is gaining popularity by leaps and bounds.

The product finds application in the following industriesa) Bakery Industryb) Fish Industryc) Snack food applicationd) Flake based chip Baked Lay (Frito Lay, USA) no oil used, rendering the chip a healthy contender in

these health-conscious times RAS Chips, RAS Potato Mash (Rixona B.V., Holland) Pringles (Procter & Gamble) Instant mashed potatoes, manufactured chips and bread (add flavour and body)

Raw material for soup manufactures, snack-industries, catering and ready meal companies, bakery, bread and confectionery ingredient suppliers, etc.

Potato Mash. This potato product is designed for the hotel and catering industry, snack bars and institutions.

Snack Chips are potato fakes mixed with water, yielding a dough which has to be pressed through a machine shaping potato chips which are then deep fried in fat or oil or as the majority trend in the developed world is, baked in order to avoid fat or oil.

1. Retail Trade :

Home consumers continue to be the major users of potato flakes worldwide. Their popularity probably is due to their convenience, relatively low cost, generally acceptable quality, and ease of reconstitution. In the United Sates in 1973, retail sales accounted for about half of the total flake production. In France and Germany, substantially all retail dehydrated potatoes are in flake form. 2. As Ingredients : Because potato flakes are dried quickly in a single step, the potato cells are easily re-hydrated

and the potato starch retains its high absorptive power. Of all forms of dried potatoes, potato flakes alone can be easily reconstituted with cold water, a fact that has led to their widespread use as an ingredient.

In the manufacture of frozen dinners, mashed potatoes are prepared by reconstituting flakes with cold water. Nonfat dried milks solids, liquid fat and butter or butter flavour are also added. Bacteriological contamination is minimized by mixing the ingredients at cool temperatures. Following re-heating of the mashed potato after freezing, a very mealy texture occurs because of the starch retrogradation caused by the freeze-thaw step.

During the period from 1968 to 1974, the rapid development of fabricated potato snacks made a dramatic impact on the potato flake industry. By 1974, the annual usage of potato flakes in fabricated was at least 80 million-lb or nearly a third of capacity. [80 million lbs 36364 MT which is 1/3rd of capacity. Hence capacity can be derived as 109092 MT].

While fabricated potato snacks made from potato flakes may not have the same flavour and texture characteristics as potato chips made by frying freshly sliced potatoes, they have the advantages of uniformity, absence of defects, and lower fat content.

Dehydrated potato products, both potato flakes and granules, can be used to form French fries for restaurant feeding, using a dry mix combined with other dry binding agents. The mix is reconstituted to a solids content of about 35%, extruded through a hand or motor-operated extruder, and then later fried by the restaurant.

Potato flakes have been used widely in government feeding programmes, for which the potato flakes must be fortified with vitamin A and vitamin C.

Potato flakes are used as an ingredient in soups, baby food, baked goods.

Potato flakes are finely ground to produce a flour, often called flake flour, which is used as the ingredient is soups, baby food and baked goods. Here the round potato flake competes with the less sophisticated drum-dried product, potato flour. It has been shown that, flake flour, pre-cooked and cooled, maintains its increased absorption of regular potato flour decreases substantially.

The use of potato flakes in baked foods improves volume, texture, colour and appearance. Small amounts of potato solids help to retain the softness and freshness when added to bread

and other baked goods. It is also used in breading meal, dried soup mixes and also as a thickening agent for canned products and sauces.

Potato Flake is a form of dehydrated mashed potato, extensively used all over the world in making canned meat products, dried instant soups and in a host of other processed food products.

Potato is perhaps the most important vegetable in the world. It is a highly nutritional and tasty food. It is a very rich source of starch and though it is consumed mainly for its calorific value it also contains significant amount of proteins and minerals.

A comparative analysis of the composition of potato, wheat and rice is furnished below :

Constituents(Grams per 100 gm on dry weight basis) %

Potato Wheat(Whole)

Rice(Raw Milled)

Moisture 74.7 12.8 13.7Protein 7.3 13.5 7.8Fat 0.4 1.7 5.8Minerals 1.4 1.7 0.7Fibre 1.6 1.4 0.2Other Carbohydrates

89.0 81.2 89.9

Calories 382 397 371

Potato Flake is dehydrated potato. Various fruit and vegetable products having high moisture content deteriorate or perish faster than these which contain lesser quantity of moisture. Thus for longer life the water content of the food products should be reduced by ‘drying’ or ‘dehydration’ to a level below that at which micro-organisms can not grow.

Apart from increasing the storage life of the product the process of dehydration gives the following advantages.1) The reduction in moisture content is accompanied by corresponding reduction in weight and

volume and hence it increases the case of packaging, handling, storage and transport. 2) Sometimes dehydration gives a product certain characteristics suitable for further processing.3) The dehydrated product usually has greater convenience in use.