Potatoes served in large-scale food service systems are often of poor quality. The current recommendation is to cook the potatoes until the core has reached a temperature of 96°C, but this recommendation is questionable. In this study, three potato varieties have been cooked by using conventional boiling (CB) to temperatures of 94°C and 96°C and steam cooking (SC) to temperatures of 92°C, 94°C and 96°C. The samples were thereafter analyzed by both texture and sensorial analyses. The results were evaluated with Partial Linear Squares Regression (PLSR). The perceived Softness and Cooking Degree from the sensorial analysis agreed with the hardness measured by the texture analyzer. The general impression of the samples showed that an undercooked tuber was preferable to an overcooked tuber, and that a cooking temperature of 96°C mostly resulted in overcooked tubers. The general impression depended on several parameters. Therefore, no optimal cooking temperature could be established.

Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.) often constitute a meal’s main carbohydrate source. When consumed outside the home, dishes are often prepared in large-scale food service systems, like school canteens and hospitals. To manage the logistics of serving the required quantities of potatoes, raw tubers must be prepared by washing, industrial peeling, preservative actions, and packaging to stand transportation and storage before cooking. There are several steps of pre-treatment, packaging, transportation, and cooking techniques that differ from traditional preparation at home, and each of these steps— or more likely a combination of several steps— might contribute to reduced quality in terms of enzymatic discoloration, microbiological failure, and subsurface hardening. In this review, the effect of each of these steps on the potato tuber; from industrial peeling to steam-cooking in the large-scale food service system, has been studied to understand where the most significant quality changes occur, and to understand the combined impact of different actions.