Nanomechanical properties of potato flakes using atomic force microscopy

Characterizing the nanomechanical properties of plants at the sub-cellular level is important in understanding the dynamic processes underpinning both potato plant growth and downstream effects of industrial food processing. Here, we measured nanomechanical properties and mapped the elastic properties of two types of industrial potato flakes that provide both optimal and sub-optimal results during food manufacturing by employing both amplitude-modulation and force-modulation atomic force microscopy (AFM) in air. The amplitude-modulation AFM revealed that sub-optimal potato flakes were more compliant when compared to the optimal samples. Furthermore, the elastic modulus maps demonstrated optimal potato samples to be significantly stiffer than the sub-optimal samples. Therefore, our results provide evidence that probing the elastic properties of potato flakes can be a first step in providing food industries with a quantitative differential assessment between optimal and sub-optimal samples.