POTATO FLAKE PROCESS

Evening Star, Issue 16626, 8 January 1918, Page 7

POTATO FLAKE PROCESS

_ Even with the best care, it is impossible to avoid the decomposition and germination of potatoes, and this generally amounts to 10 per cent,, at least in Europe. Within the last 20 years the method of preserving potatoes by a. drying process has come into prominence, and. especially in Germany, where their consumption is It is staled that the number of plants for this purpose has now greatly increased. Dried potatoes serve mainly as food for 'stock, but when_ ground to flour this material is even introduced into “war bread.” Potatoes contain 70 to 85 per cent, of water, and this must be reduced to. 17 or 18 per cent, in the dried product. Starch forms the main part of this dried material, or 16 to 20 per cent, of the weight of the potatoes, the remainder of 5 per cent, being composed of various substances. In spite of. many efforts, no success has been obtained in'wholo drying of potatoes, for a crust is formed during ‘the _ operation which prevents the proper drying of the .inside, and again this does not give a good industrial product. Therefore the potatoes are cut in pieces or in thin slices and .put through the drying machine. A more recent method is to reduce the potatoes to a pulp bv a treatment with a jet of steam; then this paste is run between a pair of hot rolls so as to expel the water. The resulting product appears in the shape cf very light flakes. That the system of potato drying has now entered 'into real industrial practice in Germany will be seen from the fact that the product from the whole number of plants for the year 1916 amounted to no less than 4,000,000 tons.