Sabine Tanios is a PhD candidate in Tasmania working on research into why and how potatoes develop green coloring.

Her work at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture looks at the wide range of factors that cause undesirable greening in potatoes, and at ways of reducing it.

She said consumers’ reluctance to eat green potatoes had an easy solution.

“We’ve all heard that green potatoes are toxic,” she said, according to http://www.abc.net.au. “However, this is not true. When potatoes are exposed to light, they accumulate glycoalkaloids, which are known to be toxic compounds if they are consumed at high concentrations.”

Tanios said this was not usually the case with green potatoes that were sometimes offered for sale. “Just peel away the green parts and you can eat it,” she said.

Tanios’s research is looking into what causes the greening in potatoes in the field, as well as what affects the greening in retail stores. It also looks at the effects of nitrogen, the role of genetics and the impact of harvesting times on the greening of potatoes. “Light is the main factor affecting greening,” Ms Tanios said. “Keeping potatoes in the dark is the key factor towards avoiding greening, but in the supermarket, you cannot keep your potatoes in a black box.”

Photo source: http://www.abc.net.au