Potato World vision PW-ACTUA The potato as a healthy vegetable on your plate, spread the word! Is the potato on your plate just a source of carbohydrates? And a part of our diet which is supposed to make us fat? Many modern diet gurus are making the consumer believe this and like to ban the potato from our daily diet. However, as you and I know, the potato is not as bad as some would like us to think. If we compare the potato with other carbohydrate sources and vegetables on the basis of contents, the potato appears to be closer to vegetables than rice, pasta or quinoa, for example. On account of its nutrients, one should call the potato a vegetable because it’s much closer to peas, beans, broccoli, tomato, onion and courgette. The potato contains carbohydrates, it’s true, but also dietary fibres, several vitamins, essential minerals, protein and carotenoids. Moreover, the potato does not contain cholesterol and hardly any fat. With one portion of boiled potato on your plate, you get approx. 15 to 30 percent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin C, B6, B3, folic acid and dietary fibres, and 10 to 25 percent of the recommended daily intake of minerals such as potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron and manganese. The ‘bad’ name of the potato is possibly because it’s also used as base material for snacks such as crisps and chips, which are prepared with a great deal of fat and salt. Fortunately, a lot of effort is being made today to make snacks less unhealthy. As a crop, the potato has a relatively small ecological footprint and, for example, needs much less water than rice, wheat or maize. Worldwide, the potato is the third food crop after rice and wheat, and especially in countries such as China, India and Sub-Saharan Africa, it’s the fastest-increasing crop in tonnage of production. In many places in the world, the potato is embraced as a healthy food product; only the consumer has forgotten how to appreciate it. And that’s not a good thing because the potato is much healthier than we think! This is something we, in the sector, all know, but let’s join forces to communicate its value to the consumer. Dr Ingrid van der Meer Manager Bioscience, senior researcher Wageningen University & Research Europatat emphasises importance of healthy potato trade in Europe With the stimulating slogan ‘Making the European Potato Trade great again! (It’s gonna be huge, it’s gonna be great, it’s true!)’ Europatat wants to give an original swing to the importance of a healthy European potato trade at the conference that will be held in Antwerp on 16 June. Europatat, the European organisation for the potato trade, organises a conference every year at which the organisations from various European countries and potato companies discuss current affairs. Every two years, the organisation is hosted in a different member country. This year, Belgapom, the recognised professional association for the Belgian potato trade and potato processing, will be the host and co-organiser. After the official Europatat Committee meetings on 15 June, the actual Conference is held on 16 June. This year, it focuses on the new European Plant Health Legislation and the role of free trade within Europe for the potato sector. Healthy trade During the morning at the Conference, the organisation will offer in-depth information about plant health. Harry Arijs, DG Sante of the European Commission and Lieven van Herzeele of the Belgian Federal Public Service for Public Health, Food Chain Safety and the Environment will give their views on the new European Plant Health legislation and its impact on the potato sector. After the coffee break, René Custers of the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology will talk about the possibilities of new breeding techniques. ‘We see from the discussions about the consequences of withdrawing some neonicotinoids and also thiabendazole and the attitudes of the Commission, the European Parliament and a few Member States, that it is slowly becoming impossible to keep these and other chemicals on the market. This again is intensifying the calls for developing more resistances by using new techniques’, is the experience of organiser Romain Cools. The European potato trade is on the agenda for the afternoon. One of the speakers will be Yves Leterme, the former Prime Minister of Belgium and Minister of Agriculture for Flanders, who will give his view on the role of Europe in intra-community trade and export of seed and consumption potatoes. He will be followed by Lene Naesager, DG Agri of the European Commission, who will express her opinion on the role of promotion. And finally, Cedric Porter, Chief Editor of World Potato Markets, will give his view about the possible consequences of Brexit for the European potato chain. For more information and registration: www.europatatcongress.eu ● Potato World 2017 • number 2 9 Pagina 8
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