Potato professor cooks up treats
Traditional foods such as steamed buns, noodles, fried dough sticks, bread, cookies, mooncakes and even beverages are now being made with potatoes, thanks to a team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Professor Wang Zhengwu said potatoes were traditionally not very suitable for food processing as they lacked gluten protein. For example, noodles made from potatoes were easy to break or gelatinize.
But his team has successfully embedded strains of high-yield amylase, collected from distiller's yeast, into potato seedling to increase amylocellulose content, which makes them more more suitable for food processing.
They have also developed various formulas to mix potato powder with wheat flour and other elements to produce 40 products, including steamed buns, noodles, dumplings, cakes and beverages.
And they have developed other technologies to make the products tastier and easier to preserve.
The team's work will facilitate the government's policy of making potatoes a staple food for the Chinese people in order to enlarge the supply of food and build a healthier dietary structure.
“The potato is widely used as a staple food in Europe," said Wang.
“It contains rich nutrients needed by people, such as carbohydrates, vitamins and dietary fiber, and has low fat and calories. It is also effective in preventing constipation and cancer.
"In China people cook fresh potatoes but potato powder is used sparingly in the food processing industry.”
Wang said they had increased the additive amount of potato power by up to 30 percent in their products.
Steamed buns made with potato powder.
Mooncakes made with potato powder.
