Effects of physical properties on incidence of breakage in canned white potatoes

During commercial sterilization of whole white potatoes, mild to severe breakage sometimes occurs. Physical properties of potatoes were measured before and after sterilization. These included major diameter, minor diameter, density, dry matter content, amylographic viscosity, compressive breaking strength, and tensile breaking strength. The experimental data were evaluated in terms of mean values from 33 different truckloads sampled at a commercial canning facility (60 tubers sampled per load). These properties were statistically compared to the incidence of breakage in sterilized potatoes. The results did not show significant relationships between any of the raw potato properties and the incidence of breakage. However, several properties of the sterilized potatoes (major diameter, peak viscosity, peak viscosity temperature) were linearly related to breakage (R² = 0.84).