Potato Product Manufacturing
Circular economy cases and their business models in potato industry
According to FAOSTAT, potato is one of the most important agricultural crops for human consumption and high amount is produced worldwide every year. In particular, the EU produced about 60.7 million tons of potatoes1.
Here you can learn more about the process, find the case studies and find out the challenges and opportunities of the by-product valorisation.
Potato peel is currently considered a zero-value or rather low value by-product, which occurs in large amounts after industrial potato processing and can range from 15 to 40% of initial product mass, depending on the various peeling or processing methods. Food waste utilization causes great concern in food industry in Europe and many scientific works and projects on this topic offer solutions and original approaches towards possible valorisation of potato peels (Sepelev and Galoburda, 2015).
Below you can see the usual processing of the potatoes, generated side streams and their common use.
POTATO PROCESSING AND GENERATED BY-PRODUCTS
Case studies in NPA region, local affects and potential of by- product valorisation
From the documents below you can learn more about the regional characteristics of the potato industry in NPA regions of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Ireland. Regional differ- ences, historical developments and existing collaborations affect the industries and the presented case studies give a representative illustration of the conditions.
Conclusions, challenges and possibilities
The NPA region of the partner countries offers rather good conditions for potato farming and further production of potato products. The utilization of by-products and waste streams from potato production, and with it the existing business models, vary a lot from country to country. Some examples of the potential uses of potato by-products are pictured below. The by-products are highlighted in grey, potential products are highlighted in green. The processes which the waste or by-products must undertake to be valorised are highlighted in light blue.
Finland has some well-established valorisation routes (e.g. production of potato flakes). Overall, logistics issues, small waste volumes and short shelf life of waste and by-products are common challenges in the potato industry. In addition, the potato industry is highly regulated, thus the unique challenge is restrictions due to potato diseases which may spread with soil and infected machinery and equipment.
POTENTIAL VALORISATION OF POTATO BY-PRODUCTS
As in the beverage industry, the potato processors share an awareness of underutilized streams, and show a willingness to explore and establish collaborations with other companies and govermental institutes as well as municipalitites. Centralized support and regulations have shown great success in certain areas. More actions are required from all partner countries to drive the development towards circular business models. Challenges and possibilities are listed in table below.
Challenges
- Logistics: High water content, shelf life, long distance, small volumes.
- Restrictions due to potato diseases, waste classification.
-
Need for additional technology.
Opportunities
- Utilization of valuable side streams, extraction, potato starch.
- On-side valorisation.
- Collaboration with other partners and municipality