Simple kinetic models of potato sloughing

Abstract

Potato cooking was analysed on the basis of kinetic theory of potato softening. The application of the theory makes it possible to connect cooking time, i.e., time of cooking prior to the start of disintegration of the potato, with some terms of the kinetic theory, mainly kinetic coefficient and critical concentration of the intracellular bonds. Simple models were developed for description of the disintegration part in terms of the cooking part parameters. Two years of data from three different varieties, in one case in six different cultivation modes, shows that deep discrepancy exists between parameters for the non-salad varieties, which correlated with each other, and the parameters obtained for the salad variety Nicola. Nicola differed from the other analysed varieties mainly much lower cooking sensitivity to starch content. This difference was the main source of the observed loss of correlation among the different cooking parameters.