Fertilise the spuds carefully to make the best potatoes

By 28. Juni 2013Blog, Health, Nutrition

It does sound obvious, fertilise the potato plants well to ensure they produce good potatoes. But here is the interesting part, the amount of nitrogen and sulphur in the fertiliser affect the levels of sugars and free amino acids. This is important because this has an effect on the colour, aroma, flavour and more importantly undesirable formation of acrylamide during cooking.

The researchers fertilised 13 different potato varieties with differing amounts of nitrogen and sulphur and analysed the potatoes produced immediately after harvest. They found that the acrylamide-forming potential of the potatoes was cultivar and type dependent but that in general it increased with increasing amounts of nitrogen. Sulphur reduced the glucose production and therefore went some way to alleviate the effects of the nitrogen.

The paper is published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry