Vitamin Retention in Cooked, Chilled, and Reheated Potatoes

The retention of several water‐soluble vitamins in baked and rehydrated mashed potatoes during cooking, chilling, and microwave‐reheating was evaluated. With baked, chilled, and reheated potatoes, overall retention values ranged from near 100% for thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin to near 70% for ascorbic acid and folic acid. Losses of these two vitamins occurred during most of the handling steps. Retention of vitamin B 6 , was significantly reduced only during the oven‐baking process. The overall vitamin retention of rehydrated cooked, chilled, and reheated potato granules ranged from over 90% for riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin B 6 , to 86% for ascorbic acid and folic acid. In general the largest reduction in retention took place during the initial preparation of the mashed potatoes from dehydrated granules and to a lesser degree during microwave‐reheating of the chilled product.