Virtual tour of Iraqi Potato Chips company BEPPCO's Potato Lab

BEPPCO, the Iraq-based potato chips manufacturer and exporter, is always striving to produce the best quality of products. This is achieved with the help of proper assessment of potato quality at the early stages of production. For that purpose, they have an advanced laboratory where all their scientific experiments, analyses, and research are carried out. PotatoPro gets a virtual tour!

The lab is known to be the heart of the factory, with most modern devices; the lab is supposed to be an opportunity to accept or reject potatoes, monitor cold storage conditions, decide on the duration of potatoes in storage, and prepare potato for the production line. Proper identification will help the company determine which tubers will store well and be sold as table stock.

The process of checking and testing potatoes happens in two sections; the first section consists of a random sampling of 100-150 Kg and is evaluated based on physical parameters such as mass, volume, and sizes.
 

This section also helps detect and identify potato diseases and mechanical damages. For section two, a sample of about 10 Kg is different from the previous sample is taken and undergoes various steps.
 Initially, advanced equipment found dry matter content (TSS total soluble and starch concentration) of weighed and washed sample potatoes.These are the critical parameters to establish quality for consumers and industrial use; estimation of dry matter can help to improve procedures income. After peeling of potatoes, a test conducts to estimate sugar content.
 Changes in the carbohydrate content primarily influence the final product quality of processed potatoes. The potato slices will fry to dark and acceptable quality if the glucose is above the standard range.
 The potatoes pass through a revolving Impaler press for slicing and are cut into paper-thin slices of 1.2 - 1.5mm thickness. After slicing the starch on the surfaces of slices that need to be washed away, the slices fall into water wash for many seconds, removing the starch when potatoes are cut.
 Weighed and dried slices of 300 - 500g are allowed to be fried at an oil temperature of 175 - 185 ℃ for 2.30 - 3 minutes. After the frying process, they will test and weigh the sample then calculate the defect rate.
 Hunter Lab

Colour is a significant quality factor, and this equipment is smart, accurate and fast to know the colour of all foodstuffs. The potato colour may have to be in the specific standard range in their labs.
 At the end of the process, they will decide whether to accept these or reject them if acceptable, then decide how to save in the storage and for which duration absolutely with monitoring.

The experiences of Nahar AL-AWRAD company in various fields in southern and northern Iraq, examine these experiments in the laboratory and do all tests during the cultivation and harvesting and stage of storage make biggest manufacturer and exporter for potato products in Iraq.