Risk of eating potato skins with anti-germination treatment

Question

Most potatoes are given a chemical anti-germination treatment to stop them sprouting before we eat them.

With crispy potato skins and baked potatoes seen as a luxury, I wondered what research has been done on the health risks of eating potato skins and what government health advice says about this.

Obviously potatoes need to be washed first, to clean them and to remove residues of treatment. Should they be soaked first? I also realise that potatoes are safer when peeled.

Being told to wash, soak or peel potatoes makes me want to see hard research data or analysis on the food-safety of chemical anti-germination treatments for potatoes. Which is why I see this more as a biology question - where I originally entered this question - than a cooking one.

UPDATE I recently bought a bag of small potatoes which are promoted as "ready to cook in a microwave oven", though marked "With anti-germination treatment". The potatoes are in their skins, in a transparent bag which looks like cellophane. As the instructions on the bag do not mention washing the potatoes, I looked at the supplier's cooking instructions and was amazed that the video says "No need to peel them. They are ready to eat!" This seems to go against all logic.

Answer 1

This is specific to the MSDS provided by @WayfaringStranger. Disclaimer: I am drawing upon my experience at an FSIS-inspected facility, which is peripheral to the subject commodity, so YMMV.

Inferring from the report contents, the pesticide in question is considered to be toxic at ≥500PPM, and the pesticide itself is distributed at concentrations of ≈400PPM. It would thus be reasonable to infer that what is applied by pre-gate facilities would be less than what would qualify a chemical hazard of concern.

Additionally, foods that bear the labeling category of "Ready to Eat" involve additional stipulations, both in the regulatory as well as retailer context. For cases where pesticide usage is cited as a potential source of risk (food safety), there are more stringent testing regimes to ensure the preclusion of residual pesticide presence. Not to mention, at the third party auditing levels — as well as retailer, typically — there are clauses that address this concern, and these are necessarily revalidated at minimum on an annual basis.

Lastly, another regulatory control regarding RTE product would prescribe the use of an adequate produce wash and subsequent processing/packing. These are typically machine-agitated wash tanks that use wash solutions, e.g., sodium hypochlorite 12.5% at 200PPM ±15PPM at 6.5pH ±0.5pH, peracetic acid, or other similar chemical solutions (note: I am referencing a NRTE process, RTE concentrations may differ) that are verified at controlled frequencies (usually every two hours, and hourly during challenge studies). Subsequently, retention samples in representative volumes are usually sent out to a certified laboratory for chem and bio analysis; this is usually not done at the pre-gate, but post-gate level (by the final packer prior to distribution to retail).

Answer 2

The toxic stuff enters not only the skin, but even to 1 mm flesh. Washing the potatoes is useless. So, always peel your potato