Belgian Researchers Seek to Improve Quality of Industrially Produced “Tuntas” Potatoes
A Peruvian delegation has traveled to Belgium, where scientists from three organizations – ILVO, HOGENT, and TRIAS – will share knowledge on how to improve the quality of the so-called “tuntas” (freeze-dried potatoes) in a small cooperative factory in the Andes. The Flemish food technologists will perform experiments and analyses in Belgium together with the Peruvians.
The goal of the development project is to make the factory-produced tuntas as high-quality as the traditional product and to make it possible to produce them year-round – even in the rainy season. Climate change has made it difficult, if not impossible, to apply the traditional production method for tuntas, where the potatoes are first soaked then left to freeze-dry in the icy, dry, open air in the high alpine for weeks. Tuntas – pure white bitter potato tubers – form a central part of the daily diet of the Andean population and for Peruvian farmers, they are a major source of income.
“During the rainy season, it is not possible to produce tuntas in the open air. In addition, the low night temperatures that are essential for the traditional tunta-processing process have hardly been reached in recent years due to climate change. The result is large losses and uncertainty for hundreds of farming families,” said Isabelle Lindemans of TRIAS, a Belgian NGO for development cooperation with expertise in supporting farmers’ cooperatives.
In Kishuara, the peasants joined forces in the cooperative called Coopagros. With the help of TRIAS they built a small Tunta factory, which was equipped with semi-industrial equipment such as a freezing chamber, water basins and a drying place in which the traditional production process can be simulated. But the final quality of these new tuntas proved to be not as good as the traditional ones, and the production continues to come to a halt during the rainy season.
In order to change things for the better, TRIAS has been guiding the 260 members of Coopagros in Peru for some time already. In the previous phase, the factory and equipment were installed. Now the potato processing is being addressed.
Earlier this year, TRIAS in partnership with ILVO – an agriculture research organization – and HOGENT started working with the local University of UNAJMA and the cooperative Coopagros the VLIRUOS Project OPTITUNTA. VLIRUOS is a funding program for cooperation between Flemish knowledge institutions and projects in the global south with the aim of formulating innovative solutions to global and local challenges. For two years, the partners will work together to improve the production process at the factory and, at the same time, to provide the students and professors of the company with the necessary knowledge so that they can subsequently take an advisory role for the local farmers.
The question being discussed during this in-person knowledge-exchange in Belgium is what exactly determines the quality of a tunta, and how best to steer the process.
“Currently, the final quality of the factory-made tuntas can still be improved. The freezing, dipping and drying steps all need further investigation and optimization. To start with, we have already established the quality parameters that a good tunta must meet,” said Nathalie Bernaert of ILVO.
ILVO and HOGENT, together with UNAJMA, will use the newly acquired knowledge in the coming months to adjust the various production steps in the tunta factory. A handbook will be written for potato farmers. Ultimately, this should lead to a freeze-dried potato of top quality that can be produced around the year, even during the rainy season.