Microstructure of Potato Products: Effect on Physico-Chemical Properties and Nutrient Bioavailability

Understanding the microstructural changes of raw potato during processing is critical if food properties want to be controlled properly, because there is a causal connection between structure and functionality. Major structural elements contributing to potato products identity and quality are plant cells, cell walls and starch granules. During processing, which can be viewed as a series of restructuring and reassembling operations, these elements are modified, which generates changes on the product properties. For example, texture is a sensory attribute of uppermost importance for the preference of potato products. The abundance of starch inside the cells, and the shape and size of starch granules modified during different processing, have been reported as important factors for the final texture, as well as the structure of the cell wall polymers. Thus, microscopy techniques for examining food microstructure are necessary to understand structure-property relationships and their effects on chemical stability, physical properties and nutrient bioavailability of potato products. Image processing and image analysis techniques provide the required quantitative data for the analysis and design of food microstructure. In addition, it is necessary to improve the quality of existing foods and to create new products that satisfy consumer’s demands of healthy foods, which will be based on interventions at the microscopic level. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________