General Director of the Scientific and Practical Center for Potato and Horticulture of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Vadim Makhanko told the correspondent Learnedwhy the scientists of the center abandoned the term "universal variety".
“A universal potato variety is always worse than a specialized one. Already 30 years ago, we even abandoned the term "universal variety". One variety cannot be suitable for everything. Therefore, we clearly divide varieties into table varieties, for industrial processing and starch production. What Belarus has always been famous for is high-starchy products that have a great export potential. Table varieties, first of all, should be beautiful, because the buyer takes the goods with his eyes. Then he comes home, starts cleaning it, and rates it a second time for cleaning waste. The third time he looks at him for taste, ”Vadim Makhanko noted.
The specialist said that earlier Belarusian potatoes were mostly white-fleshed and well cooked. Now the tastes of the population are very different. Most consumers, under 90 percent, love yellow-fleshed potatoes. It is healthier from a nutritional point of view. It contains vitamin A, the same carotene as in carrots and tomatoes.
“In terms of digestibility, there is also a great variety. Someone still loves potatoes, which are very soft. Someone takes one to crack, which needs to be cut with a knife. Again, referring to nutritionists, there is less starch. We must offer consumers a variety of varieties in terms of tuber shape, taste, texture, digestibility and skin color. In modern potatoes, the flesh can be not only white, cream, yellow, but pink and even purple. Everything was created using natural varieties, but nevertheless, it is still exotic for us,” the director general of the institute is convinced.