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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Aberdeen, Idaho » Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #354913
Research Project: Potato Genetic Improvement for Enhanced Tuber Quality and Greater Productivity and Sustainability in Western U.S. Production

Location: Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research

Title: The effect of harvest timing on French fry textural quality of three processing potato varieties: Russet Burbank, Alpine Russet, and Clearwater Russet

Author
item WAXMAN, ADDIE - 1,4group, Inc
item STARK, JEFFREY - University Of Idaho
item THORNTON, MICHAEL - University Of Idaho
item OLSEN, NORA - University Of Idaho
item GUENTHNER, JOSEPH - University Of Idaho
item Novy, Richard - Rich

Submitted to: American Journal of Potato Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/14/2018
Publication Date: 10/22/2018
Citation: Waxman, A., Stark, J., Thornton, M.K., Olsen, N., Guenthner, J., Novy, R.G. 2018. The effect of harvest timing on French fry textural quality of three processing potato varieties: Russet Burbank, Alpine Russet, and Clearwater Russet. American Journal of Potato Research. 96(1):33-47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12230-018-9686-5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12230-018-9686-5

Interpretive Summary: Three potato varieties, Russet Burbank, Clearwater Russet, and Alpine Russet were evaluated over a 2 year period at three different harvest dates for seven French fry textural qualities. Early harvest of all three varieties was found to negatively impact French fry quality relative to later harvest dates, with fry crispness being most notably adversely impacted. Significant differences in fry textural qualities were observed between the three potato varieties with Clearwater Russet consistently maintaining acceptable fry quality with the highest textural scores of all seven fry parameters for a full nine month storage season. Fry quality of Alpine Russet and Russet Burbank declined more rapidly during prolonged storage and did not achieve the same acceptable textural fry scores at the end of storage relative to Clearwater Russet.

Technical Abstract: This two year (2014 and 2015) study evaluated the effects of three different harvest dates; early, normal, and late, on quality attributes of French fries produced from three processing varieties, Russet Burbank, Clearwater Russet, and Alpine Russet over a nine month storage season at 8.3oC. The seven quality attributes evaluated included crispness, external shell, mealiness, moistness, texture variation, texture defects, and internal appearance. Results of this study show that early harvest, relative to normal and late harvest was more detrimental to producing high quality French fries with regard to texture, and most notably, crispness. During storage, early-harvest French fries declined in quality and were out of grade for crispness at five months after harvest in 2014 and were out of grade at harvest for the full storage season in 2015. Significant differences were noted among the three varieties with regard to texture quality. Clearwater Russet consistently maintained acceptable quality with the highest textural scores of all seven parameters for a full nine month storage season. Alpine Russet declined in textural quality five months after harvest. Russet Burbank declined rapidly in textural quality over the course of the storage season .