ABSTRACT
Potatoes play an important role in ensuring food security. During the COVID-19 epidemic, consumption of processed potato products decreased, and consumption of fresh potatoes increased. China is the world's largest potato producer with more than 4.81 million hectares of area under potato production and 90.32 million metric tonnes of potatoes produced in 2018. This accounts for 27.36% of the world's planting area and 24.53% of the world's potato production. The proportion of potatoes processed in China was about 12% in 2017, mostly dominated by starch production. However, the recent policy of the Chinese government to popularise potato as a staple food has created new markets for processed potato products other than starch. A very few reports have analysed these future trends of the rapidly growing Chinese potato processing industry and its impact within and outside China. This paper provides an overview of the latest developments with a focus on processed potato products such as potato chips, French fries and dehydrated potatoes, and also, due to the unique Chinese diet culture, it highlights the need for more scientific research dedicated towards the development of novel potato-based healthy foods.
ABSTRACT
Nowadays, an average of 2 kg of waste per person are generated in Spain. Furthermore, the household consumption is rising and, as a consequence, the waste production is also increasing. This trend presents a direct impact in the environment. Moreover, after two years of COVID-19 pandemic, it has been detected a stronger rise in consumption per person, while consumption through professional commercial channels for hospitality industry has been lower. This paper analizes the waste generation and product shrinkage in a potato bagging plant, which addresses its production to both final consumers and retailers. The raw materials washing line, as well as the production line, are taken into consideration in the analysis, while new uses to the produced waste are proposed, aiming at providing new useful life, such as the production of bioplastics or the production of biodiesel. As a consequence, the environment impact is minimized and new products are obtained. © 2022 The Authors.