Day of the Potato: Box office hit Teufelsknolle

2023-08-19 07:16:28

On August 19th, Austria’s favorite side dish will be celebrated. The challenges for cultivation are growing

Vienna (OTS) – Potato salad, fried potatoes, potato pancakes, potato dumplings: the list of potato classics in local cuisine is almost endless. The environmental protection organization GLOBAL 2000 uses today’s “Potato Day” to protect the tubers of these to ask nightshade plants to come out in front of the curtain.

“Austrians consume about 50 kg of potatoes per capita per year. That’s more than the combined annual consumption of rice and pasta.” Claudia Meixner, Head of the Pesticide Reduction Program (PRP) at GLOBAL 2000to the “potato nation of Austria”.

It was Maria Theresia who got the potato boom rolling. In the middle of the 18th century, bad harvests and famines prompted them to let the farmers grow potatoes “on command”: a victory march.

Facts about the potato
potatoes, pear, Härdöpfel, Grumbere, Bramburi – the list of names for the potato goes on and on. Some well-known and lesser-known facts about the potato are:

are potatoes very healthy – they contain many nutrients: starch, protein, vitamins (B and C) and minerals (potassium, magnesium, iron)
Unwashed potatoes have one better durability. Therefore, organic potatoes with soil on them are sometimes offered.
Shapeless tubers are not a problem in terms of taste or health, just like. Tubers with small feeding holes, such as from the wireworm: simply cut away the feeding hole and eat the rest of the tuber.
After storage, the potatoes sometimes sprout on the shelves or at home due to the higher temperatures. These germs should be removed before cooking and the Simply cut away the expelled eyes, then the potatoes are still edible.
85% of the potatoes on the Austrian supermarket shelf become produced in Austria – most of them in the Waldviertel and Weinviertel.
It ends in March or April natural dormancy of potatoes, they are beginning to expel. Because the potato was not mentioned in the Bible, it was also called the devil’s tuber
The potato didn’t come until 16th century from South America to Europe

challenges
As part of the pesticide reduction program, GLOBAL 2000 checks around 60 potato samples per year. Increasing heat and drought are currently the greatest threat to domestic production. “Lower yields and reduced shelf life are the directly visible results of this development. In addition, tubers are more susceptible to pests such as wireworms,” explains Meixner.

Until recently, the PRP was also confronted with the carcinogenic germ inhibitor chlorpropham. The specially imposed, high pesticide limits could often not be met, which meant that potato deliveries had to be blocked for sale on a regular basis.

Info: The pesticide reduction program

In 2002, to reduce the pesticide load on fresh fruit and vegetables, GLOBAL 2000 developed the Pesticide Reduction Program (PRP). This has been implemented since 2003 in cooperation with BILLA and since 2006 also with BILLA PLUS (formerly Merkurmarkt) and PENNY, three supermarkets owned by REWE International AG. All test results are published on the Billa Homepage published.