Potatoes could boost water supplies

New technology for extracting water from potatoes is being trialled by food giants PepsiCo, which owns the crisp manufacturer Walkers.

They are perfecting a process to capture water released from the potatoes as they are cooked into crisps before using it in the manufacturing process.

Martyn Seal, European sustainability director for PepsiCo, which has just launched a new report setting out its goals for sustainable farming in the UK, said: "About 75% of a potato is water, so there are a lot of natural resources in that potato we felt we should be tapping into and reusing.

"When we cook those potato slices while making crisps, the water normally escapes through chimneys in the roofs of our factories.

"We are doing some work to capture the water that goes out of those chimneys, treat it and then reuse it in the factory for the washing, peeling and slicing processes.

"We think this technology we are working on can capture enough water to allow us to take our factories of the mains supplies."

Mr Seal added: "At a later stage we hope to be also be able to use this for domestic consumption to supply drinking water in our factories.