Potatoes are the main industrial raw materials for the production of starch, glucose, alcohol, etc. Starch can be directly used by the textile industry, paper industry, and food processing industry; starch can be processed into a variety of modified starches for the production of high-grade coatings, starch paper (for candies), etc.; starch fermentation can produce organic acids, amino acids, enzyme preparations, etc.
Potato modified starch has a wide range of uses, including food, clothing, housing and transportation. For example, the clothes worn on the body, whether they are cotton, wool or blended, must use modified starch as sizing and finishing agent. All paper, the more high-grade paper, the more modified starch should be used. Oil drilling, sewage treatment, daily chemical products, various fine chemical products, such as building materials and casting. But also in cosmetics. Food, meat products, convenience food, puffed food, sauces, soups and all other foods must be used. Even automobile manufacturing uses modified starch. The upstream of modified starch is mainly the starch industry, and potato starch is a very high-grade, high-quality raw material for modified starch in the industry.
At present, my country started late in the research, production and use of modified starch. This is due to the constraints of the national conditions of the original large population and little food. After the 1980s, the starch processing industry began to be vigorously developed. The modified starch began in the 1990s and began to be studied at home. ,develop. It has been applied in many fields such as textile, paper making, food, feed, casting, medicine, construction, petroleum, etc. But in terms of the type, quality and application range of modified starch, there is a big difference with foreign countries.
Glue, animal feed and fuel grade. Potato starch is also widely used in the pharmaceutical, textile, woodworking and paper industries as a glue, binder, texturing agent and filler, and it is also used by oil drilling companies to clean boreholes. Potato starch is a 100% biodegradable alternative to polystyrene and other plastics, such as disposable plates and cutlery.
Potato peels and other "zero-value" waste from processing are rich in starch, which can be dissolved and fermented to produce fuel grade. A study conducted in Canada's potato-producing provinces estimated that 4-5 million liters could be produced from 44,000 tonnes of processing waste.
One of the earliest and most widespread uses of potatoes in Europe was as livestock feed. In the Russian Federation and other Eastern European countries, half of the potato harvest is still used for this purpose. Cows can eat 20 kg of raw potatoes a day, while pigs can be fed 6 kg of cooked potatoes a day to gain weight quickly. Potatoes are mashed and mixed with silage, which is heated and cooked during fermentation.
Although the time is still relatively short, less than 20 years, but now the development speed is very fast, with the improvement of people's living standards. There are more than 2,000 kinds of modified starch produced in developed countries, which are widely used in various industries. At present, there are only more than 30 kinds of modified starches in our country, and many high-grade modified starches cannot be produced in our country. For example, some high-grade nutritionally fortified foods, high-efficiency water-absorbing and water-retaining agents, modified starches used in the manufacture of films, pharmaceutical capsules, etc. are still in the development process.