Potato peeling machine

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Potato peeling machine

A potato peeling machine is a device used in large kitchens or in the food industry to mechanically or chemically remove the peel when processing potatoes . Since potato peeling with a knife or a potato peeler is labor-intensive, the first potato peeling machines were invented by Johann-Heinrich Wassermann from Lispenhausen at the end of the 19th century . He developed the "Flotte Lotte", a hand-operated vegetable grinder, and applied for a patent for it in 1892. The Flottwerk company he founded is still managed today by the founding family and produces potato washing and peeling machines for large kitchens and industry.

Technique and procedure

These were initially intended for manual operation. They usually consisted of large drums in which peeling disks or rings peeled off the peel. Today, in addition to the so-called knife peeling process, which was associated with relatively large losses, further processes are distinguished: round hole, corundum, steam and lye processes. While the corundum process (also carborundum or abrasion peeling process) is also a mechanical process in which the potatoes rotate over a granular base and their peel is rubbed off in the process, the steam peeling process causes the peel to burst through the application of high pressure and a corresponding temperature with subsequent sudden relaxation brought and stripped off by water and brushes. In the caustic process, which is no longer used for environmental reasons and because of the high loss in abrasion, the shell was chemically softened with caustic soda and washed off. The lye peeling process also resulted in a loss of vitamins and denaturation of the protein on the surface of the potatoes. Machine-peeled and preserved potatoes are often already packaged in this form and purchased by the catering industry or large kitchens.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Ulrike Thoms: Institutional Food in the Rationalization Process. Franz Steiner Verlag, 2005, p. 261.
  2. VDI 3895 sheet 2: 2014-11 emission reduction; Installations for cooking and heat treatment of food; Processing of potatoes into semi-finished or finished products. Berlin: Beuth Verlag, pp. 16-18.
  3. Rudolf Heiss: "Food technology: biotechnological, chemical, mechanical and thermal processes in food processing." Springer, 2003, p. 297.
  4. ↑ Based on a vitamin C loss of 5%, the Free Association of Bavarian Representatives of Applied Chemistry, Association of German Food Chemists: Journal for Food Analysis and Research, Springer-Verlag, 1966, volumes 131–132.