Appropriate techniques for development and manufacture of low-cost potato-based food products in developing countries

This study focuses on the feasibility of household- or community-scale processing of a dry powder mix called M-6, based on potato and extended with cereals and dry legumes. After an overview of the potato as a local Peruvian food, the report offers a brief theoretical description of product development. A step-by-step description of the development, testing, and processing of M-6 details: M-6 ingredients; consumer and nutritionist responses to the mix; market prices for raw materials; cost per kilo; and other information such as time and energy inputs for the various steps of peeling, rectification, cooking, mashing, mixing, milling and sieving, shredding, and solar drying. Costing and artifical drying techniques are then discussed, and diagrams of drying equipment are provided. Costs and specifications are given for equipment at CIP"s pilot plant and for its processing facility at Huancayo; similarly treated is the process and costs of family-level production of M-6 mix in households in three communities. Recipes using M-6 are provided.