How Potato Starch Is Made? An Industrial Step-By-Step Manufacturing

Have you ever paid attention to what you buy from the supermarket? We all try to make these products at home. Specifically, those made from food waste, like when you’re squeezing grated potato through cheesecloth to get rid of that extra water. You can simply make that powdery starch just by saving that water and going through an easy-to-follow process! This product not only thickens foods but also plays a magnificent role in the paper, textile, and pharmaceutical industries.

Select the most suitable potato for starch extraction, then wash it to remove impurities. The next part is breaking cells into a slurry starch base and adding water for a smoother texture. To ease the process, separate the additives like fiber, protein, or peels. Once it’s separated and rid of impurities, it’s time to dry and powder it to starch texture. Finally, pack it with vacuum-sealed packaging!

In this article, we’ll learn what exactly potato starch is and how different industrial and homemade processes are. Let’s see the basics and benefits of potato starch, its step-by-step industrial production, and innovative thoughts on it!

This product not only thickens foods but also plays a magnificent role in the paper, textile, and pharmaceutical industries. If you’re looking to explore professional-grade potato starch solutions, there are innovative systems and equipment designed for optimized extraction and use.

Basics of Potato Starch

Potato starch is such flour-like powder extracted from high-starch potato tubers like russet (Burbank or Idaho) which contains 20-22% of starch to 80% water content (Source: ScienceDirect), big starch granules, low protein and fat content, and extra high viscosity.

Unlike other starches such as cornstarch, wheat starch, rice starch, or tapioca starch, potato starch has a bland taste, gluten-free composition, and low gelatinization processing temperature, which makes it perfect for thickening foods quickly!

Moreover, it’s a game changer through several practical properties:

In gluten-free bakery goods, it helps water absorption, softness, and boosting shelf-life of baked products (cakes, breads, and muffins)
In the pastry section, it plays such a crucial role in thickening and gelling the structure for making marshmallows, chewy candies, and brightening syrups, while leaving a long-lasting sweetness and shelf-life!
In foods and snacks, adding potato starch, helps achieving crispy and low oil-absorption finish in fried products, while binding mixtures to get shape easily in extruded snacks like cheese puffs.
In sausage making, starches like potato starch are used to control moisture and paste perfect texture, while it eases the freeze-thaw cycle as well.

Application Area	Properties	Recommended Usage (compared to flour weight)
Bakery Products	Moisture retention, crumb softness	10% – 20%
Confectionery	Clear gels, freeze-thaw stability	3% – 8%
Snack Foods	Crispiness, binding agent	5% – 15%
Meat Products	Water retention, firmer texture	1% – 3%
Frozen Foods	Prevents ice crystal formation, improves stability	3% – 7%

How Is Industrial Potato Starch Manufacturing Going On?

After all, we’ve got here, diving into this complex production together, getting ready and not afraid, it’s all about several vivid steps, from selection to drying and powdering. Then you can be aware of what you’re consuming and slightly learn how to make it on our own in small-scales!

1. Select the Starchiest Potatoes Ever!

To have such high-quality potato starch, at the first step, we should discover the best choice from all high-starch varieties, whether Russet, Idaho, long white, or Goldrush right because of their uniform shape and starch percentage (mostly between 15-22%). According to The Nef Kitchen, Starchy potatoes are high in starch, low in moisture and have a floury texture.

Furthermore, manufacturers are looking for new-harvested potatoes which are from cold climates to boost the starch extraction and minimize the degradation of enzymes.

2. Delivery and Pre-Processing

After selecting the best potatoes with high-starch content, it’s time to transport them to the factory to pass the first quality control test. This test is mostly about evaluating potatoes by visible damages as bruises, cracks, or cuts, disease signs like mold and rot, and external materials such as soil and stones; they also sort and grade potatoes based on their shape and size to starch content through automated sorting systems and machines!

Additional Tip: to prevent molding and sprouting, it’s recommended keeping fresh potatoes in cool, dry and away from the light.

3. Cleaning and Washing the Potatoes

At this step, potatoes go to the de-sanding process to get rid of sand, soil, or any small impurities. Several machines are used at this level, then let’s check this step out by reviewing two of them.

De-Sanding Machine: This Machine works as de-stoning functions by passing potatoes through the rotary screen. By this process, most of the sand and stone are eliminated from the surface of potatoes and machines. Next step is going through the conveyor belt for additional impurity removal!
Cleaning Machine: for raw material cleaning, this Machine reduces impurities by entering potatoes into the roll cage and washing them through passing this 4-meter length and water-washing
Hydro cyclone Device: workers can check them for rotten potatoes, wooden or plastic trash. Finally, fresh potatoes get high-washed and almost peeled!

4. Crushing and Cell Breakdown

Now, we’ve got to the key step of starch making; in this process, the peeled and fresh potatoes are granted by a rasping machine to crush the potatoes into a slurry and release all the potato granules. There are two types of rasping based on the starch production scale:

High Speed Rotary Rasper: this device, by using its speedy rotating function, grinds the potatoes into uniform and slurry mixture with high starch rate, while needing higher power and complex maintenance process and is ideal for potato and cassava, not sweet potato!
Traditional Crushing: it mostly breaks ingredients into large and scratchy pieces by putting mechanical forces, this process is less efficient, but uses less energy than rotary raspers and is suitable for all purposes!

Pro Tip: The extraction rate of potato indicates the final starch content, which is influenced by how rasper works, the higher speed it manufactures, the higher slurry starch we’ll get!

5. Separation of Starch from Fibber and Juice

This section is specifically about how it can affect the extraction rate and final starch content regarding three central levels:

Water-Based Extraction: to separate granules from cells, firstly, potatoes go crushed, then get mixed with water, and finally they are separated from impurities. (according to one of the articles on ResearchGate)
Centrifugation: to separate quite high, we need to pour the mixer from the last part to the centrifuge sieve to remove any fibers through repeatable and high-speed rotation process.
Removing Fibers and Other Potato Matters: at this point, a disc separator eliminates what leftover as protein or cell sap to gain such pure, slurry milk starch!

6. Starch Milk Refining and Purification

After the three-level separation part, there is still a bit of fiber which may go through Hydrocyclose station. It’s used to remove fiber, protein, and cell sap from starch milk for more concentration and purification. As the last part this station includes three parts: concentrating, recovering, and washing, which may be combined with a disc separator as well.

pH Tip: the pH level of starch milk affects its practical properties, for example: stability, gelatinization, and its final texture. The best pH is between 7.0 and 8.0; additives like Alkaline or acid may form it better through their adjustment processing! (Source: National Library of Medicine)

7. Dewatering and Drying Process

After the starch milk gets separated from waste, it’s time to lower the water content by aiding the vacuum filter, which gives us a potato starch mixture with 38%-42% moisture.

Then, the mixture goes through a flash dryer or spray dryer as the last part of this process by applying a low temperature drying system that avoids starch gelatinization and makes such a powdery finish with 12%-14% moisture.

8. Final Processing and Packaging

To achieve the market standard, the high-speed hot air dries the wet starch by changing the heat. Then a cyclone separation device separates the starch and air to get ready for packaging, which final potato starch is going to be packed by semi-automatic machine.

To protect from moisture, vacuum-sealed packaging is a perfect way, while it preserves the quality by avoiding light, oxygen, and moisture to enter and lower the quality or make a gelatinized texture.

Industrial Usage of By-Products

After releasing potato starch, we encounter tons of fiber and residual Waste, then what should we do?! There are three efficient ways to reuse this Waste into gold!

Potato Juice: a by-product, contains a rich protein base which can be used in meat alternatives and plant-based protein supplements, also by drying it may convert to such economical and sustainable feed for livestock, there is no waste! The final liquid can be helpful for soil heath.

Potato Fibers: According to LCHF Style, potato fiber is used as dietary additives to help digestion issues and make bread, cereal, or snacks bulkier, while it can be used in animal feed to improve stomach health.

Residual Waste: potato waste, such as peels and pulp, can be processed in biogas production and electricity and heat generation this method comes up with renewable energy production!

Simple Methods to Produce Potato Starch

Did you get astonished with our complex industrial potato starch manufacturing?! If your answer is YES, just follow this part to ease this extraction and make it clearer!

Homemade Potato Starch Extraction

Have you ever asked yourself, what can I do with potato juice remaining from my hash brown? Here is one the easiest ways to make potato starch.

Ingredients and Tools: You need potatoes, warm water, a bowl, grater, and cheesecloth.

Main Process:

First, peel the potatoes, then grate them and soak them in water. Stirring eases the extraction.
After 20 min, strain and squeeze it through a clean cheesecloth as much as possible and repeat the process several times to make sure all the starch comes out of the fibers.
Let the mixture rest for a while until the water turns light orange; now it’s time to pour the water out and spread the starch base onto a sheet, letting it dry and get hard.
The final step can be breaking dried pieces into a mixer and having the powdered potato starch as you desire!

Small-Scale Industrial Extraction Vs. Big-Scale One!

The small-scale industrial extraction of potato starch is popular due to its lower investment basis, high efficiency and profitability, while there are basic differences between these two methods:

Mechanical Pressing: this contains using motorized presses or grinders to squeeze potato juice by crushing cells into a slurry.

Filtration and Sedimentation: for this part in small-scale manufacturing, they use multi-layered sieves, centrifugal sheets or sedimentation tanks to separate all the fine fibers, protein and extra peels

Drying and Packaging: to dry starch mixture they use low-temperature oven or flash dryer, right to achieve moisture content between 12%-14%, moreover once it gets dried, will be packed in moisture-resistant bags.

Traditional and Indigenous Starch Extraction Methods

This method is used in home-style food processing and small villages where natural processes are still going on there for local consumption. They use mortars and pestles for starch extracting, then after slurry formation step, they separate starch mixture through muslin cloth or fine mesh into a large container to settle, after all they spread them on sheets, mats, or trays to get dried under sun.

With this method, they can keep their cultural traditions and environmental safety while not needing expensive tools!

Challenges And Innovations in Potato Starch Production

Nowadays, waste management and eco-friendly trends are popular all around the world. Starch manufacturers look for methods which require small amounts of water and energy, concerning environmental considerations, while achieving food quality standard needs to consider minimized processing and using natural ingredients.

Innovative trends aiding from enzymes like cellulase or ultrasound waves to break cells into starch. Genetic engineering improves potato gens to be more starchy and easier to extract, while zero-waste processes and circular economy cause converting potato waste to animal feed or reduce footprint.

If you’re looking for a supplier of starch manufacturing machinery to aid you find all those automatic machines, Yasmin Trading will be there till the last part to find, buy, install, and have that powdery starch from scratch.

Yasmin trading – your partner in innovation and perfection. Contact us to convert your ideas to reality!

Conclusion

Finally, we’ve reached the end. From selecting the starchiest potato to cleaning and washing it like a piece of gold, then smashing it like there is no tomorrow! (Not for hash brown!!) To separate cells from starch content, from purifying to drying and packaging, we’ve gone all the way to figure out what exactly is going on in factories to reach that powdery starch to make the best fried chicken! The more professional they use automatic machines, the more perfect starch they’ll have!

FAQs

1- Why is potato starch used in the food industry?

Potato starch, due to its large granule, is used to thicken and bond the texture of liquid foods like soups, stews, and sauces. Also, its fiber waste is used for crunchy baked food like bread, cereal, or snacks as well.

2- How does drying affect the quality of potato starch?

Drying process is for reducing the moisture of slurry starch to 12%-14% by using a flash dryer or low-temperature microwave, the appropriate temperature can affect damaging or high-humidity of starch finish!

3- What are the differences between small-scale and large-scale potato starch production?

In Small-scale production simple tools like grinders and sieves are used and are perfect for local businesses or home-based production. Meanwhile, in big-scale style industrial and advanced machinery like centrifuges and flash dryers are used which are completely automated, and produce starch in large size.