Talk:Instant mashed potatoes

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Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment[edit]

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Ilanwright87, Miriamchen 0426, Hanclarence.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 00:34, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Dehydrated potato flakes (moved from WP:RD)[edit]

Who invented dehydrated potato flakes? We don't seem to have an article about them. We do have Smash potato mix, but it does not address the question.

It is widely claimed that Canadian Edward A. Asselbergs invented them in 1962. [1] On the other hand, Idahoan Foods claims to have been founded in 1960 with the express purpose of producing instant mashed potatoes [2]. I have not found any source that devotes more than one throw-away sentence to the question, and astoundingly, Google does not know of a single document containing both of the words "Asselbergs" and "Idahoan" [3].

Any ideas? Thanks — Pekinensis 15:11, 2 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The same article claims that chocolate bars were invented in Canada 1905, despite having been around for at least 50 years at that point. As for mashed potatoes, Swedish manufacturer Felix opened a potato processing plant in 1954 and started making instant mashed potatoes before the end of the decade [4], and they don't claim to have invented anything, so they probably got the idea from elsewhere. I suspect the article is more about "first use in Canada" than first use on a more worldwide scale... --85.228.162.71 (talk) 14:34, 26 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Well, Asselbergs definitely was issued a U.S. patent for "preparation of dehydrated cooked mashed potato" U.S. patent 3,260,607, which claimed priority from a Canadian application from 1961. However in his patent application he makes it clear that there are preexisting forms of instant mash potatoes in the prior art, in two forms: granules and flakes, the latter of which are dehydrated. For this he cites Canadian patent 561,119, which seems to be the primary form of the prior art he is contending with throughout the application in differentiating his method as unique. One of his references in the paper is a U.S. Department of Agriculture publication from 1954 on "Potato Flakes; a New Form of Dehydrated Mashed Potatoes", which makes me think that they must date from at least that period. --Fastfission 21:07, 2 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
On the Dept of Agr.: two US Department of Agriculture researchers were issued a patent for "Drum drying of cooked mashed potatoes" in 1954 (U.S. patent 2,759,832), which must be what he is referring to. It describes the end product specifically being "as a thin sheet or flake". Another patent by Dept. of Agriculture researchers issued in 1957 (U.S. patent 2,780,552) speaks extensively about flakes specifically as well. --Fastfission 21:14, 2 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
Also, check out U.S. patent 1,025,373 -- a patent on "Dehydrate Potatoes and Process of Preparing the Same", application issued in 1905 and granted in 1912! While it doesn't describe them as flakes, it clearly describes how they could be turned into a wonderful food product with just a little hot water.
So I suppose a lot of this depends on what the definition of "dehydrated potato flakes" is, as "instant mashed potatoes" seems to have been around for almost a century! I haven't read this over word for word, of course, so I might be missing something.
(If you're wondering how I did this: I searched for "Asselbergs, Edward" on the UK patent database, which has a lot of US and Canadian patents in it too, and then took the US patent number there and plugged it into the USPTO website, and then took the cited reference numbers from there and re-plugged them in. I have some scripts which make this sort of thing very quick, which helps a lot). --Fastfission 21:09, 2 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]
In all likelihood - some little old lady hundreds of years ago. ¦ Reisio 21:16, 2005 August 2 (UTC)

This is great information; thank you! I really hadn't thought to look at the patent records. I'll try to work this into a stubby article. — Pekinensis 23:31, 2 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I remember learning in grade school eons ago about how the Incas dried and crushed potatoes for later use, taking advantage of subfreezing nighttime temperatures and extremely low humidity in the Andes mountains of South America. Their descendants are probably still doing it to this day. Even though they didn't use a vacuum chamber, the method was a primitive form of freeze-drying. The basic knowledge goes back hundreds, if not thousands of years. The article should distinguish between ancient, pre-industrial practices and modern methods of producing instant mashed potatoes. — QuicksilverT @ 23:43, 29 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

All of the above is wonderful! Thanks so much to all of the posters for both the information and for giving the sources. Much of it is relevant to the main page and I wonder why it hasn't been added to the main text. Can't the edit robots do that? Mag Wildwood (talk) 17:17, 11 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

See also[edit]

See Also section added with link to Smash (instant mashed potato). --80.176.142.11 (talk) 12:26, 19 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Dried mashed potato[edit]

Amazing. There seems to no reference at all on the net, let alone Wipedia, to Pom, the ration-free dried powdered potato we used to get during the war. – 217.43.217.180 (talk) 16:54, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Rectified with this edit. Trafford09 (talk) 19:09, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Who's the royal "we"? It would be interesting to learn which country is being referred to and more about this product seeing as you seem to know about it but can find no mention of it online. I t is of historical cultural importance, after all. Too much gets lost in the mists of time. Even worse because it's deliberate, too much is being erroneously written online by revisionist historians with personal agendas and well-meaning, but incorrect, additionists who don't check their sources. Mag Wildwood (talk) 17:38, 11 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Why more salt?[edit]

The article currently reads that instant potatoes have "substantially more salt". But why do they have any more salt? Is it necessary for preservation? Is it inherent in the dehydration process? Is it simply more salt by weight, after the water is removed? Is it an artificial flavor enhancer? Leptus Froggi (talk) 12:02, 28 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Some suggestions for the Wiki page on Instant Mashed Potatoes- A University Food Science Class activity[edit]

We are a group of five individuals researching this topic to explore more of the food science and technology behind it. Here are some topics we are researching that we feel the page needs to encompass. Please have a look at the some of the articles and let us know if you agree the wiki page is lacking.


Potatoes selection, Preservation of instant mashed potatoes, Packaging of instant mashed potatoes, Additives (functional properties), Texture of instant mashed potatoes


Article links for these topics:

1. Potato selection <http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=921068> <https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/tcsae/abstracts/2012/7/2012.7.030>

2. Preservation of instant mashed potatoes (process)

<https://www.google.com/patents/US5536525> <https://www.google.com/patents/US3459562>

3. Packaging of instant mashed potatoes <https://www.google.com/patents/US5536525> <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1974.tb02946.x/epdf>

4. Additives - functional properties <http://reader.eblib.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/(S(m0eevqeh24eoaopxj25fzovo))/Reader.aspx?p=1025601&o=1267&u=mEXlDkHAaNSMGuTUPDk3aw%3d%3d&t=1455684154&h=F18FC0315D4C7BF329A28FEA4251D94B8D9131A4&s=42304456&ut=4226&pg=1&r=img&c=-1&pat=n&cms=-1&sd=2> <https://app.knovel.com/web/toc.v/cid:kpEGFAE007/viewerType:toc/root_slug:essential-guide-to http://reader.eblib.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/(S(1ildcjrkz4ted52acpjebzt5))/Reader.aspx?p=819341&o=1267&u=mEXlDkHAaNSMGuTUPDk3aw%3d%3d&t=1455684227&h=9BF7FD20BE3FCF2B82DD3F952C4D5A122169AB9B&s=42304456&ut=4226&pg=1&r=img&c=-1&pat=n&cms=-1&sd=2> <https://app.knovel.com/web/toc.v/cid:kpHFAE000A/viewerType:toc/root_slug:handbook-of-food>

5. Texture Replication: <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0023643803002020> <https://www.google.com/patents/US2787553>

February 16th, 2016

(Ilanwright87 (talk) 03:57, 17 February 2016 (UTC))[reply]

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