Exploring the road of potato staple grain was introduced into China 400 years ago.

In early 2015, Tudou, whose scientific name is "Potato", suddenly became popular. At a seminar entitled "Potato staple Food Development Strategy", an official from the Ministry of Agriculture said that in the next few years, China will launch the potato staple grain strategy, and potatoes will become another staple food after rice, wheat and corn.

Potatoes, which were originally in the ranks of vegetables, are finally going to counterattack and become a staple food in people's hands. Some netizens joked that "this kind of change is not easy to accept for a while." And no matter in the official or the folk, all kinds of discussions are heard one after another, and the potato's "past life and this life" has been popularized by various media again and again.

So why can potatoes become a staple food? How will it change our table and our eating habits? A few days ago, the reporter conducted an interview with these questions to explore and reveal the road of potato staple food.

Potatoes were introduced into China 400 years ago, and now there may be the third revolution in staple grain.

What is the staple grain? Dai Xiaofeng, director of the Agricultural products processing Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, described it as "staple food that is usually eaten in a bowl and held in his hand." He further explained to the reporter: "crops that become staple grains must meet three conditions: first, they can be produced on a large scale in relatively large areas; second, they can be stored in large quantities and for a long time; and third, they can be accepted by most people. It accounts for a major proportion of three meals a day, and can provide most of the energy and nutrition that eaters need. At present, the main grains that can be used as staple grains are commonly known as grains and miscellaneous grains, as well as potatoes. "

As Dai Xiaofeng said, in the eating habits of the Chinese people, miscellaneous grains are regarded as staple grains, while at present, the recognized staple grains are rice, wheat and corn. Among them, the rice produced in Asia is undoubtedly the "overlord" of the staple grain. According to historical records, in the Shennong era of the 27th century BC, China began to sow rice. More than 4200 years ago, rice cultivation has been promoted from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to the middle reaches of the Yellow River. Today, rice will continue to occupy the dominant position of staple grain.

After rice, wheat and corn have also become the staple food of the Chinese people. But unlike rice, the latter two are "imported". Wheat originated from the Mediterranean coast and entered China along the Central Asia, Xinjiang and Hexi Corridor during the Shang Dynasty. Its arrival triggered the first revolution in the history of staple grain development in China. Pasta officially appeared in Chinese recipes and formed a staple grain pattern of "south and north". In the 16th century, corn originating from South America also began to enter Guangxi and other regions of China, which set off the second revolution of staple grain. With the passage of time, corn became another staple food on the table of ordinary people.

However, as an exotic crop, potatoes, which came to China from Europe more than 400 years ago, are not so lucky. Although it has been eaten as a staple food in other parts of the world for thousands of years, in our country, because people are unable to process it into steamed bread and noodles, its road to staple grain is a little slow. "on the one hand, under the influence of China's traditional eating and consumption habits, potatoes are mainly used as vegetables, and people do not have enough understanding of its nutritional value. On the other hand, as potato processing technology has been difficult to break through, potato flour can not make staple foods such as noodles and steamed bread using traditional technology, which also directly affects it to become a staple food. " Dai Xiaofeng said, "however, once the potato is turned into a staple grain, it is bound to set off the third major grain revolution in the history of our country."

As long as the technical problems that plagued our ancestors are solved, the road to the staple grain of potatoes will become faster.

In fact, in the process of staple grain, small potatoes have great advantages over wheat, corn and rice. Although the fresh potato has high water content, is not resistant to storage and is not convenient for transportation, if it is processed into whole powder and turned into dry matter for storage, the potato will be much more resistant to storage than flour and rice.

People can't help but ask: what kind of form will potatoes appear when they change from vegetable to rice? When can we ordinary people eat these products?

During the interview, Dai Xiaofeng told the reporter a story. A friend's wife loves potatoes. Once, she tried to make noodles with potato powder. She found that the whole potato powder was so broken that it was impossible to knead it into dough, let alone to make noodles and wake up. So this friend came to consult to see if there is a possibility that potato powder can be kneaded into noodles more easily and made into noodles that everyone can eat. In fact, we have been looking for a technical path to solve this problem. The problem encountered by this friend's wife is exactly what we ordinary people are concerned about, and this is precisely a processing technology problem that has been troubling our ancestors. "

As the national team of agricultural research, the Institute of processing of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has been doing research on potato staple grain for a long time, especially in the design and improvement of potato processing technology. As a result, experts propose that the accumulated technical achievements can be used to trial-produce potato noodles with a total potato powder content of 20%. After the Spring Festival in 2014, 20% of the first generation of products containing potato flour were successfully produced, and experts were excited to determine the technical feasibility of potato as a staple grain. With the success of the experiment, the National Potato main Food Research Group was officially established in March 2014. In August 2014, the first generation of potato staple products containing 40% potato flour were also tested successfully. Since August 2014, the processing Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has sent successfully trial-produced products by experts to the canteen of the Ministry of Agriculture, making them the first batch of testers of potato staple food products.

"potatoes do not contain gluten. When making steamed bread, noodles and other staple food products, there are some problems, such as difficult to shape, difficult to wake up, high hardness, noodles easy to break, not resistant to cooking, and so on. It is really not easy to solve them." Zhang Hong, a researcher at the processing Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who has long been engaged in traditional food processing and equipment research, lamented to the reporter, "as long as the processing problem is solved, the road to potato staple grain will be much easier."