Potato starch:

Potato is a good source of starch and contains 14-16% starch. Potato starch is utilized for special applications in industries such as pharmaceutical, textile, food and paper. Properties of potato starch are superior than maize and cassava, which leads to its higher price compared to maize and cassava starch. The method of starch extraction from potatoes is quite simple and easy. Moreover, the advantage of using potatoes for starch production is that the potatoes which are not suitable for table or processing and potatoes which are damaged and are too small or too large can be used for starch extraction. Presently, potato starch manufacturing industry is almost non-existent in India. The major reason behind this is the low cost of imported potato starch from Europe and China. This coarse starch is further refined and exported to other countries. Processing the potato into coarse starch with conventional method increases the value of potato by 30%, if processed with lactic acid using state-of-the-art technologies value increased by three folds, value of potato increased eight times if it is modified into water absorbent resin, and it increased to twenty times if processed into cyclodextrin and almost thirty times if processed into fine chemical products.

Starch powder and a single starch granule