Just two potato-based snack foods – chips/wafers and French-fried potatoes – account for more than 42% of all processed potato-based products worldwide as the primary value-added products of potatoes.

French fries are one of the most commercially successful potato products in the world, and they are usually made by slicing fresh potatoes into strips and deep-frying them.

“Being fried in oil, French fries are generally high-calorie food and provide some beneficial nutrients such as minerals and vitamins. Like potato chips, French fries are also a fat-rich, high-energy food. On average 100g of full-fried French fries can provide 312 kcal of energy, 3.43 g protein, 14.73 g of fat, 41.44 g carbohydrates, 3.8 g total dietary fiber, 0.3 g sugars, and 1.85 g of ash. However, this composition can vary depending upon the quality of oil used and frying time-temperature,” Handbook of Quick-frozen French-fried Potatoes reveals.

The French fry quality is determined by the golden color and crisp external surface and soft mealy interior. Light or light golden-yellow color is preferred while the brown or black color is considered undesirable. Potatoes used for the preparation of French fries generally have a creamy white to golden-yellow flesh color and are largely due to the oblong tuber (preferably more than 75 mm diameter).

Moreover, to avoid losses during peeling and to maintain the shape of the French fry sticks, potatoes with shallow eyes are preferred for processing. Besides, the potatoes should possess high specific gravity, a dry matter content of more than 20%, and a reducing sugar level of less than 150 mg per 100g of tuber fresh weight to produce good quality French fried potato sticks.

Cleaning, washing, and peeling the potatoes (in factories, steam peeling is used), cutting, blanching, pre-drying, and frying in a frying medium (industrially manufactured French fries are pre-fried), are the most common processing stages.

Potato chips (crisps) are yet another popular potato snack made by frying thin slices of potato in lard or oil. The thickness of the slices can vary between 1.27 and 2 mm. After frying, the moisture level of chips ranges between 1.7-1.8% (less than 2%), with a total fat content of 35% (33-38%). A conventional ready product’s fat content can be as much as one-third of its weight. There are also “light” chips with a lower fat level that contain about 25% of this component.

The production of potato chips also involves several technological stages, including cleaning, washing, and peeling the raw material (industrial potato chip production uses mechanical peeling with carborundum), slicing tubers, optional blanching, drying, and frying in oil, and the potato chips are also seasoned with a spice blend while in the production plant.

You can read the rest of this article in your complimentary e-copy of Issue 1 of Potato Business Digital 2023 magazine, which you can access by clicking here.