Effect of Mechanical Damages and Storage Conditions on Quality of Markies cv. Potatoes for Processing

Aims: Evaluate whether mechanical damage and storage conditions affect the quality of the ‘Markies’
potato for processing.
Study Design: The experimental design was the completely randomized, in the scheme of splitplots.
The plots were composed of treatments with and without mechanical damage and the subplots were
made up by the evaluation times, with 5 replicates, where the experimental unit was composed of 2
tubers.
Place and Duration of Study: Tubers of the ‘Markies’ cultivar from the producing region of Perdizes,
State of Minas Gerais, were planted in June 2016 and harvested in October 2016.
Methodology: The tubers were stored for 2 months at 8°C and further divided into treatment with
damage, in which the tubers were subjected to impact and abrasion and control treatment, in which
the tubers were not damaged. After that, they were stored at 28°C and evaluated for their loss of loss
of accumulated fresh mass (FML), total soluble sugar (TSS), reducing sugar (RS), nonreducing sugar
(NRS) and color after frying in the periods of 0, 12, 24, 36 and 48 h after being placed at room
temperature.
Results: The mechanical damage in the tubers increased FML, however, it did not affect the content
of TSS, NRS, RS and color after frying. Increases were observed in the content of TSS and NRS after
12 h of evaluation. Grade 2 was assigned to the coloring scale after frying for the tubers regardless of
treatment or evaluation period.
Conclusion: Mechanical damage increases the FML and the ‘Markies’ cultivar is suitable for the
industry of pre-fried potato processing even under the occurrence of mechanical damage and
exposure to high temperatures.