Premium Potato Varieties

Premium Potato Varieties

　　Fresh potatoes can be cooked as staple food or vegetables. However, fresh potato tubers have a large volume and high water content, making transportation and long-term storage difficult. For this reason, countries around the world pay great attention to producing processed potato products, such as French-style frozen fries, crisps, instant potato flakes, starch, as well as a wide variety of pastries and wafers, numbering over 100 types. Fresh potato stems and leaves can be used as fodder through silage, but they contain solanine, which must be prevented from causing livestock poisoning. In some regions of China, potato stems and leaves are used as green manure, and their fertilizer efficiency is similar to that of purple vetch.

Potatoes are relatively high in lysine and are easily absorbed and utilized by the human body. Their fat content is about one-thousandth. Minerals are one to two times higher than those of general cereal crops, especially rich in phosphorus. Among organic acids, citric acid is the most abundant, followed by malic acid, then oxalic acid, lactic acid, etc. Potatoes are a crop extremely rich in both the variety and quantity of vitamins, especially vitamin C, with content as high as 20 to 40 milligrams per 100 grams of fresh tuber. An adult can meet their daily requirement by eating just half a kilogram of fresh potatoes. As a crop that serves as both grain, fodder, and vegetable, potatoes offer a complete range of nutrients and are known as the “second bread” crop in Europe. Due to their high nutritional value, potato-based foods have become a current consumption trend.