Effects of vacuum packaging on the physical quality of minimally processed potatoes

In recent years, consumers have become more health conscious in their food choices but they also have less time to prepare healthy meals. As a result, minimally processed (MP) products have become an important sector of the food industry because of their ‘fresh-like’ qualities, convenience and speed of meal preparation. In this study, the physical qualities of MP potatoes (‘Desiree’ variety) stored for 7 days in vacuum packaging were evaluated. The shelf life of MP potatoes was effectively extended to nearly 1 week under refrigerated storage by using vacuum packaging systems. The main quality parameters were constant during storage.