Balance between nutrients and anti-nutrients in nine Italian potato cultivars

Nine commercial potato cultivars have been analyzed in order to detect differences in nutritional quality, considering the balance between nutrients and anti-nutrient compounds present in each. The most important nutrients studied in this paper were: water, starch, free sugars, such as glucose, fructose and sucrose, malic acid, citric acid, ascorbic acid and chlorogenic acid. The anti-nutrients measured included α-solanine, α-chaconine and asparagine. This last compound was added to the anti-nutrient compounds because it is involved in the formation of acrylamide during thermal food processes. From this study, by considering the nutritional quality of each cultivar, we can divide the potato cultivars into three groups, each being suitable for a different technological processes.