Sprouting potatoes: whether you can eat them depends on the length of the sprouts
Created: 12/23/2022, 2:30 p.m
By: Ines Alms
Are your potatoes sprouting?
Then pull out the centimeter tape, because that is what decides whether enjoying the tubers is healthy or indigestible.
A sad sight in the potato sack: wrinkled potatoes with long sprouts.
But how long exactly?
If they are too big, too much of the harmful solanine has formed in the potatoes - a case for organic waste.
You can't exactly tell from a potato how well you'll tolerate it, but there are a few pointers.
Potatoes germinate: The length of the shoots tells you whether they are edible
Too many sprouts that are too long make the potato poisonous.
© CHROMORANGE/Imago
The supermarkets are closed and the cellar is no longer there, so you have to manage somehow before you start cooking the potatoes with a queasy feeling.
When in doubt, cooking won't help - solanine, a toxin that shows green spots and sprouts on the potato when exposed to light, is extremely heat-resistant up to 240 degrees Celsius and only partially escapes into the water during cooking.
Nevertheless, you should throw it away or use the potato water for other purposes and generously cut out the green areas before cooking.
like dr
Norbert Haase from the Max Rubner Institute explains to the
Quarks.de
portal that during germination all valuable substances from the tuber are directed into the shoots, so that the unhealthy substances there can increase by a factor of 30 to 50.
The germs are therefore taboo for consumption if you do not want to expect stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea or worse.
Children in particular are more at risk because of their lower body weight.
You can find even more exciting garden topics in the regular newsletter of our partner 24garten.de.
Potato still edible?
Count germs and measure length
For germinating potatoes, the following rules should be heeded in order to reduce the solanine content as much as possible:
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From a germ length of three centimeters it becomes questionable, then more harmful substances are deposited in the tuber itself.
It is therefore better to completely dispose of the potatoes from a germ length of one centimetre.
The more shoots, the more solanine is formed: according to the
Nordbayern.de
portal, up to five buds are okay, above that it is better to throw them away.
Just a few short sprouts: generously cut away a few small green spots and eyes or sprouts.
If the cooked potato tastes bitter, you should stop eating it.
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To prevent potatoes from germinating in the first place, they should not be stored for too long, but should be stored properly: cool (below ten degrees), dry and dark - but not in the refrigerator.
The shriveling of the potatoes is also not ideal.
They not only lost healthy nutrients, but also water.
This increases the solanine content, explains Professor Wim Wätjen from the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg to
SZ Magazin
.
The older the potato is, the sooner you should peel the tuber.