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The Netherlands has a world-leading position in potato breeding, but little is known about the factors that led to this success. This paper analyses the factors that have influenced the development of potato breeding in the Netherlands. This study is based on research of the grey and scientific literature and interviews with various representatives from the Dutch potato breeding sector. We distinguish four periods: (i) Before 1888, no potato breeding in the Netherlands existed whereas in other countries first crosses occurred. (ii) 1888–1940, more individuals started breeding out of interest and hobby to overcome the commonly observed degeneration of potato. (iii) 1940–1967 the emergence of a corporate set up of breeding by private companies collaborating with small breeders. (iv) 1967–present, towards full-fledged breeding industry supported by the new Seeds and Planting Materials Act (ZPW) in 1967 including the breeders' rights. Many factors including cultural practices, diseases, and market that determine the strategy of breeding have been analysed. The development is most of all 'crop driven' to maintain the level of production. But it was also 'export driven' leading to the development of an export-oriented seed potato sector. The conclusion is that three elements were dominant in the development of a strong potato breeding sector: (1) the broad cooperation among all players in the potato chain, (2) the design of the institutional infrastructure, and (3) the remuneration of the breeding work through legislation regarding plant breeders' rights. The study ends with an outlook on future trends, one of them leading from an open to a more closed business culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, hundreds of potato dishes exist, originally composed by cooks in traditional kitchens. Gradually cooks more and more applied processed products as ingredients to save time and to widen their range of dishes. The products are classified according to their features, ranging from thickeners in soups to ready-to-eat snacks. Besides cooks, also the food industry makes ample use of (modified) potato starches, flakes, flour and granulates. Before users prepare meals from purchased ingredients, they only have had visual perceptions of the products as displayed on shelves and in freezers of shops and presentations at the internet. The organoleptic properties, taste, smell and structure of tubers and products are perceived in the kitchen only. Sensory appreciation, likewise, is a function of the types of ingredients in dipping and batter during processing and their role to improve products and flavouring. The nutritional value of tubers, other staples and potato products and dishes is analysed and their enhancement and losses in the production of the raw material and processing are discussed. This paper reviews existing dishes worldwide and how the processing industry derived thereof products for kitchens and the food industry. The nutritive value of tubers and their products is explored. In general, the density of nutritive components of the products is correlated with their water content that decreases from blanched or baked, to fried French fries, chips and the flour. Starch, minerals, some vitamins and antioxidants become less diluted and appear in higher concentrations in products than in the raw material they are derived from. The energy content increases more than proportional in fried products because of adhering oil that per unit weight almost has more than double the energy content of starch. Additives such as sodium acid pyrophosphate (SAPP), batter and dextrin improve the flesh colour of French fries, their crispiness, and staying hot time, and give the golden hue. Flavouring creates a wide range of tastes of French fries and chips. Blanched and chilled products either mixed with vegetables or not are often supplied with sachets of seasoning to be spread on the product while preparing a dish in the kitchen as the seasoning effect would partly disappear when mixed with the chilled product. Different consumer desires from, among others, health and environment perspectives are articulated and it is assessed how easy or difficult it is for processors to manufacture suitable products. The paper concludes with future perspectives of consumers among other aspects regarding health and convenience and how the industry reacts with innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potato has strong links between the actors as varieties bred by breeders, crop management of growers and site location of processors strongly influence the yield and quality of the finished products. Here, the actors (breeders, growers, processors, retailers and users) in the value chain are recognized, and their information and material flows identified. The influence of genotype, environment and crop management and the efficient use of resources during the production of raw material, tubers harvested for processing purposes, are delineated. It is shown that climate change affects performance and that consumers looking for quality and new products are hardly interested in the primary processes, nor are breeders and processors showing interest in consumer concerns. Crop performance is dependent on yield and quality (dry matter, sugars, tuber size and desired and undesired constituents). Factory performance relies on recovery, reuse of rejects and avoidance of wastes. Heatmaps drawn of classes of productivity and losses and their attributes reveal where gains are to be made on fields, farms and factories to improve efficiencies, reduce the impact on the environment, and opportunities for decarbonisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wheat, the most important food crop, can be stored for a much longer time than potato. It is ground and made into flour or pasta that can be turned into bread or a dish at any time. Potato is only storable for a limited period, so it floods the market at harvest. Major benefits of processing for growers include regulating the availability of markets and price through contracts, and the decrease in the number of consumers buying fresh tubers is compensated by processors buying raw material. Processors add value and employment and consumers are offered a wide array of affordable and convenient products. Large potato processing companies produce annual sustainability reports advocating measures for growers to spare the habitat, more efficient processes in factories, newer and healthier products and supporting communities. These are recorded and viewed in a theoretical triangulation from the angles of processors, and those trying to bend the rules. The industry, especially when expanding to new (developing) markets, faces political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal (PESTEL) issues that fluctuate according to the presence of a raw material base, competition and buying power and culture of the consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In supermarkets in the Netherlands, well over 150 potato products are displayed. They can be distinguished by heating characteristics (boiled or fried), appearance (e.g., intact tuber pieces or formed hash browns), dehydrated (e.g., snacks and flour) and storage temperature (e.g., ambient and frozen). Fancier products (frozen formed versus chilled blanched) require more processes and operations in factories and are more expensive; consumers appreciate them because they offer more convenience. Heatmapping and hierarchical clustering were carried out twice within the domain of classes of products and their attributes. In a theoretical triangulation, consumers give high scores to low prices and a wide range of products, tastes and sizes where processors give these attributes a low score. Processes in factories include dehydration, heating, cooling and transformation. Examples of the latter are modification of starch to increase the range of applications in the food industry, forming of mash and shreds to produce croquettes and hash browns and expansion to make snacks. Processes require operations such as washing, cutting, blanching and packing. In total, between the arrival of the tubers at the gate and leaving as packed products to outlets, 66 operations are distinguished. French fries undergo some 30 operations and to produce flakes, 8 suffice. Heatmapping and hierarchical clustering differentiate a group of physical operations (with attributes associated with heating and cooling that require much energy) and mechanical ones (related to separation, grading, sorting for instance and size reduction of which shredding is an example that require little energy). The wide range of operations in large factories, reducing the moisture content and longtime storage at low temperatures, distinguishes potato from wheat that has fewer operations while increasing the moisture content in relatively small bakeries and the product, bread, stored for about one day in ambient conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The processing potato ontology includes the three domains of growers, processors and cooks producing tubers, products and dishes, respectively. Dishes consist of three subdomains: types of dishes prepared from products, kitchen operations and consumer preferences. Preparing meals with potato as ingredients dates from the time of the domestication of the crop in the Andes region. It involves washing, peeling, partitioning in smaller sections and heating to gelatinize the otherwise, for non-ruminants, indigestible starch. Since the Columbian Exchange, both the crop and processing expanded globally. The history of potato processing starts with the pre-historic pre-Columbian era when drying as a means to preserve and render the tuber less bulky and making flour and alcoholic drinks were common practice. Once the crop was a global food crop, processing established, initially into an array of nourishments for seafaring and military purposes and later for aviation, convenience and to satisfy hedonistic needs. The domains are studied through a four-tier analysis: first a description and delimitation of the domain are made, next allocation of classes with their attributes followed by awarding a value to an attribute as to the degree it applies to the class, yielding a heatmap, and fourthly, a dendrogram is produced that shows clustering of classes and of attributes with similar features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]