Instant mashed potatoes

Instant mashed potatoes or instant mash potato is a packaged food composed of potatoes that have been through an industrial process of cooking, mashing, and drying to yield a convenience food that can be reconstituted in the home with water or milk, as an approximation of mashed potatoes. A key characteristic of the product is that it is in the form of flakes or granules, eliminating the lumping that makes more difficult the reconstitution of potato flour.

Brands include Smash potato mix and Idahoan mashed potatoes.

History

The practice of drying and grinding of starchy root vegetables for preservation and portability is widely attested around the world, and likely dates back before the advent of agriculture. Potatoes in particular have been freeze-dried since at least the time of the Inca empire, in the form of chuño.

U.S. patent 1,025,373, titled "Dehydrate Potatoes and Process of Preparing the Same", and describing a product that was to be reconstituted in hot water, was applied for in 1905 and granted in 1912.

Flake-form instant mashed potatoes date back at least to 1954, when two United States Department of Agriculture researchers were issued a patent for "Drum drying of cooked mashed potatoes" (U.S. patent 2,759,832), which describes the end product specifically being "as a thin sheet or flake".

Canadian scientist Edward A. Asselbergs was issued a U.S. patent entitled "Preparation of dehydrated cooked mashed potato" (U.S. patent 3,260,607), for a particular industrial method of producing the product.

Nutrition

Instant mashed potatoes are substantially similar to mashed fresh potatoes in their nutritional qualities, although with some loss of vitamin C. One hundred grams of instant mashed potatoes provides 11% [1] of the USRDA of vitamin C, compared to 18% [2] provided by the homemade version. Vitamin C may be added to some products to compensate.