Are Green Skin Potatoes Safe To Eat

Are you one of the many people who are suspicious of any dark-green colour on your spuds?

Sabine Tanios is a PhD candidate in Tasmania working on inquiry into why and how potatoes develop green colouring.

Her work at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture looks at the wide range of factors that crusade undesirable greening in potatoes, and at ways of reducing information technology.

She said consumers' reluctance to consume green potatoes had an like shooting fish in a barrel solution.

"We've all heard that light-green potatoes are toxic," she said.

"Nevertheless, this is not true. When potatoes are exposed to light, they accrue glycoalkaloids, which are known to be toxic compounds if they are consumed at high concentrations."

But Ms Tanios said this was not ordinarily the case with greenish potatoes that were sometimes offered for auction.

Ms Tanios's inquiry is looking into what causes the greening in potatoes in the field, as well as what affects the greening in retail stores.

It too looks at the effects of nitrogen, the role of genetics and the impact of harvesting times on the greening of potatoes.

All about the light

Potatoes showing signs of greening are notwithstanding safe to eat once the green parts have been cut away, Ms Tanios says.( Supplied: Tasmanian Constitute of Agriculture )

"Lite is the main factor affecting greening," Ms Tanios said.

"Keeping potatoes in the dark is the key factor towards avoiding greening, simply in the supermarket you cannot keep your potatoes in a black box."

Research has revealed the color or wavelength of light is a key factor.

"When you use blue light, greening can occur very quickly, while if you employ green calorie-free, greening is much less," Ms Tanios said.

Greening occurs over a wide range of murphy varieties, with more than than 100 dissimilar types being screened as part of the research projection, with some more susceptible than others.

Ms Tanios said her research results would have a wide application.

"Potatoes are the quaternary-most important food ingather worldwide," she said.

"Greening is one of the major factors contributing to millions of dollars of losses every twelvemonth in each country."

Posted sixteen Jan 2018 Tue 16 January 2018 at ii:50am, updated 16 Jan 2018 Tue sixteen Jan 2018 at v:32am