Zinc is a nutritionally essential truce element, and thus zinc deficiency (ZD) severely affects human health. More than 25% of the world's population is at risk of ZD. This study was initiated to examine the use of the vacuum impregnation (VI) technique for enriching zinc content of whole potatoes; the effect of vacuum time, restoration time, steam-cooking and storage at 4 °C on the zinc content of VI whole potatoes was evaluated. Whole potato tubers were immersed in a 9 g/100 g zinc (zinc gluconate) solution. Vacuum pressure of 1,000 Pa was applied for 0-120 min, and atmospheric pressure restoration for 0-4 h. Experimental results showed that the zinc content of VI potatoes increased with vacuum and restoration time. Moreover, VI-cooked unpeeled or peeled potatoes had 63-94 times and 47-75 times higher zinc contents than un-VI-cooked unpeeled or peeled potatoes, respectively. The world daily potato consumption (86 g) of the VI-cooked unpeeled and peeled potatoes provided adult men with 130-148% and 100-135% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of zinc, respectively. Also, the daily potato consumption of the unpeeled and peeled potatoes supplied adult women with 178-203% and 137-185% of the RDA level, respectively. In addition, the VI potatoes had 40 times higher zinc contents through 30 days of storage at 4 °C, compared with un-VI-treated potatoes. This study indicated that VI treatment of whole potatoes was useful for enriching the zinc content.
Keywords: Steam-cooking; Storage; Vacuum impregnation; Whole potatoes; Zinc enrichment.