ROLE OF TUBER DENSITY IN POTATO SLOUGHING

A new CPEM method was developed and used to study the cooking curves of two potato varieties showing differences in texture and of one variety cultivated in four different regimes. The two main cooking curve stages (i.e., cooking and disintegration) can be described by simple linear equations, with density as an independent parameter. The parameters in the equation describing the cooking stage were reformulated to express directly the role of starch. The two new parameters obtained were weakly correlated and expressed separately cooking time sensitivity to starch content and the basic potato characteristic in relation to sloughing. Data obtained indicate only a minor role of starch content during the first part of cooking that is determined primarily by basic potato characteristics probably related to the cell wall properties. In the second stage of disintegration, starch content plays a more important role.