Green potatoes.

[GIDGET]

Tell me - how green are your potatoes before you bin them?

If a potato has the slighest green tinge I chuck it in the bin.

Green spots - yep - chucked straight-away, but the potatoes I am talking about have this very slight green tinge just under the skin. I you peel them thickly - then you can't see any green - but are they really safe?

With young kiddies, I don't want to take any risks.

Unfortunately, this has meant that lately when I have bought a bag of potatoes I am throwing out half of them - or more.

Our family budget can't cope this with much waste - especially when everything else is getting so expensive .

I have been buying my potatoes from the local green grocer shop. I prefer to support the smaller shop owner rather than the large supermarket chains. It is getting frustrating - I am going to have to complain.

FYI - The potatoes are kept at the bottom of the pantry in a potato bin and taken straight out of the bag when I get them home from the shop.

[Junglemum]

It is true that this green stuff can cause food poisening. If they are very green i would throw them out, but just that slight tinge, i think if you peel them well they are fine.
That's what i do anyway, and i havn't had food poisening yet?!

[Pandora]

green potatos can cause hysteria.
I am pretty certain that it is illegal to sell them.

I never buy bags of patatos except for chat potatos when I'm making a salad and will be using all of them at once.

[Junglemum]

Rayray- did you mean Lysteria? Although they could cause hysteria too! LOL

[Pandora]

No, I meant hysteria.
There was an incident at my high school, a whole year level.

[Junglemum]

i don't understand, i thought hysteria was "unmanagable fear, a state of mind"
Please educate me!

[Pandora]

Not sure TBH, we were told that they ate them and one kids got sick, but then all the others did too, but when they were checked over the others weren't actually sick. they got psychologists in and everything. Might be innacurate, but thats what we were told.

OK this is from the Food Science Australia Webiste:

Why do potatoes turn green?


The role of a potato tuber for the potato plant is to produce the next generation of potatoes. It therefore contains nutrients in the form of starches, sugars, proteins and minerals for the new potato plant. When a potato tuber is exposed to light it turns green by producing chlorophyll and then can make extra energy for the new plant through photosynthesis. The green patches act in the same way as leaves do.

The potato plant also has the interesting ability to produce its own protective chemicals which can make it lethal to insects, animals and fungi which attack it. These protective chemicals (glycoalkaloids) are at high levels in the leaves, stems and sprouts of the potato plant and are normally at very low levels in potato tubers. However on exposure to light the potato tuber will produce elevated levels of these protective glycoalkaloids, with the highest levels being in the sprouts as they emerge from the tuber.

Potatoes will also produce high levels of glycoalkaloids (such as solanine) in response to bruising, cutting and other forms of physical damage, as well as to rotting caused by fungi or bacteria. In these instances high levels of glycoalkaloids are present in the potato. However in non-damaged potatoes, greening is a warning sign.
Are green potatoes safe to eat?


Green potatoes may cause food poisoning and since some of the symptoms are similar to gastroenteritis it is possible that some undiagnosed cases of gastroenteritis have been caused by eating green potatoes.
Human and livestock deaths have been recorded as a result of the consumption of greened or damaged potatoes with very high glycoalkaloid levels. It should be noted that glycoalkaloids are not destroyed by cooking processes, even by frying in hot oil. Consequently potatoes with pronounced greening or with signs of damage should not be eaten.

It is advisable that green or damaged potatoes are avoided by pregnant women or women who are likely to become pregnant, as there is some evidence of possible foetal damage or loss of the foetus from glycoalkaloid poisoning in animals.

Buying potatoes

New potatoes do not keep as well as older potatoes. As they are not fully matured they have a higher moisture content and thin skins which are easily damaged. They should be bought in quantities that can be consumed promptly.

Thick-skinned older potatoes do not tend to green as rapidly as new potatoes and are therefore suitable when longer storage periods are used.

Care should be exercised when buying red skinned potatoes such as Pontiacs because any greening that has occurred may be camouflaged underneath the red colour at the top of the skin.

Storage of potatoes in the home

Potatoes should be removed from plastic bags and stored in brown paper bags or in trays in a cool dark place such as the bottom of a cupboard. Try to place them so that air can circulate around them.
Refrigeration of potatoes is not recommended because they are sensitive to chilling. At normal refrigeration temperatures (2°- 6°), the starches they contain are converted to produce high levels of sugar. These sugars will cause the potatoes to turn brown very quickly when fried.

Conclusions

Not every potato with traces of greening will contain sufficient levels of glycoalkaloids to pose a threat to health. However because of the possibility that green potatoes may produce food poisoning, they should be discarded, as should physically damaged potatoes and those with any signs of rotting.
Consumers should avoid buying any potatoes that show signs of greening or damage and should carefully remove any sprouts before cooking. However it should be remembered that healthy potatoes do not pose any health risk at all and are an excellent source of nutrients.

[Charly's mum]

I saw a program several years ago now, which said that green potatoes can cause miscarriages, and not to cut out the green as once it is green the poison is in the whole potatoes. Sorry this is all I remember about the program.

I always buy potatoes that are loose so I can check them, and keep them in a dark place, since is the light which makes them go green.

[~Raven~]

I'm sure I saw on a program that it was fine to just cut off the green and use the rest of the spud

I might grow my own because I always end up with green ones!

[Junglemum]

Ok, maybe i'll stop peeling the green bits off and throw them out!

I think i understand Ray-ray, green potatoes caused food poisoning in one person, which lead to hysteria in the school. (ie. People panicked and it made them sick too, although pysically they were fine. )

Sorry to babble on in your thread Gidget!

[Harri]

I get the potatoes with the dirt on them if i'm peeling them for chips or roast, they last real well and the soil protects them from greening!!!

[GIDGET]

Yes Haroula - these are the ones I buy, with all the dirt and they are the ones that have a greenish tinge when I peel them. {Or maybe it is just the 1970's fluoro lights in my kitchen making them look greenish.}

Thanks for all the info Rayray - I have now binned the rest of the bag of potatoes. Am TTC ATM so not taking any risks.

I think in future I will buy unwashed ones and only in small quantities which can be consumed quickly. I am so sick of greenish tinged potatoes - or maybe I just shop at a bad greengrocer.

[Charly's mum]

Gidget, yeh sometimes its the greengrocer and how they store them. I know there is a couple I don't go to because they are alway more green ones then good ones. Doesn't help when they put them in red bags so you don't notice how green they are.

[GIDGET]

Hi Charly's Mum,

Yep, you are so right - last weeks were in a red bag - how dodgy. I don't think I will be buying potatoes there again in a hurry!

This week I went to another green grocer - not in a red bag, but really covered in dirt so impossible to get a good look at them and still greenish when peeled. Really, I should have returned them instead of chucking them out - it is such a waste - especially with the prices ATM.

[Pandora]

Did they feel hard/firm or a bit bloated, IYKWIM?
I've noticed that as the potatos get older and often green potatoes, if you squeeze them its a bit squishy, they feel like they're retaining fluid?
So as well as green-ness I always squeeze before I buy

[GIDGET]

Thanks Rayray, some but not all were getting a bit soft - all now in the bin!
I must remember to squeeze before I buy my taties!
Thanks for your help!

[Lisa]

OMG.... I honestly never knew this!!! How scary!!!
I just don't like the look of some potatoes, so I throw them out... there have been times, when I have been low on money etc and I have cooked up green-ish potatoes... we're still all here alive thankfully!!!