Potatoesâ¦ - Bayer CropScience

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Potato starch – a versatile commodity The potato is the world’s fourth most important food plant – after rice, wheat and maize. But that’s not all: the tuber’s starch content also makes the modest spud an extremely versatile and sustainable raw material. French fries, potato pancakes, fried potatoes – the potato seems to have an endless number of uses in the kitchen. Following its discovery in South America by Spanish colonialists in the 16th century, the potato plant Solanum tuberosum (from the Solanaceae family) spread around the globe. However, the indigenous people of South America had already recognised the value of the potato several thousand years earlier. Today, the potato is the number one staple food for more than a billion people, thanks to its excellent nutritional properties – reason enough for the United Nations to declare 2008 the “International Year of the Potato“. But the famous spud can do a lot more than just feed people. The potato’s starch content makes it an important sustainable raw material. It delivers the highest yield of starch per cultivated hectare (6.5 tonnes - compared with 3 tonnes and 4.5 tonnes for wheat and maize, respectively). Europe in the lead According to figures from the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), approximately 314 million tonnes of potatoes were harvested around the world in 2006. More than two-thirds of the harvest were used for human sustenance. The rest was used for industrial uses, as animal feed, or as seed. There are no detailed data for the extent to which potatoes are used for non-nutritional purposes in the various regions of the world, but the figures for the nutritional use of potatoes at least give an indication: the proportion is considerably higher in Africa, 28 COURIER 1/08
Starch – an impressively versatile commodity Paper- and cardboard manufacture: Starch improves the technical properties (e.g. it increases the paper’s firmness). Biotechnological raw material: Starch provides a substrate for growing the micro-organisms that generate useful end-products (e.g. vitamins, citric acid) through their metabolism. Textile industry: Starch ethers give yarns abrasion-resistance and smoothness. Swelling starch improves the product’s look and feel. Pastes and glues: Starches (e.g. swelling starch and starch ethers) are the basic raw materials. Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics: Use in powders, toothpaste and creams. Modified starches, used as additives in tablets, help them to dissolve in the body. Detergents: Starch is a starting material for biologically-degradeable sugar detergents. Biologically-degradeable materials: Starch is the raw material for plastic-like materials. 1/08 COURIER 29
Page 1 and 2: COURIER The Bayer CropScience Magaz
Page 3 and 4: World potato production 1991-2007 (
Page 5 and 6: Potato production by region 2007 Po
Page 7 and 8: virus-free seed potatoes will also
Page 9 and 10: Sabine Sulzer, Product Manager for
Page 11 and 12: Some tips for preparing potatoes
Page 13 and 14: phase, representatives from across
Page 15 and 16: For more than a century, the Nether
Page 17 and 18: This is Agrico Agrico is a co-opera
Page 19 and 20: “Phytophthora infestans will cont
Page 21 and 22: New combination of active substance
Page 23 and 24: From yield reduction to total yield
Page 25 and 26: Moreover, Biscaya benefits from inn
Page 27: as far back as 7,000 years ago, whe
Page 31 and 32: Compostable plates and saucers Toys

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Potatoesâ¦ - Bayer CropScience