The valorization of the italian typical potatoes: use of the chemical indexes for their characterization

The statement of the European Commision clearly indicates the importance of multifunctionality for European agricultural policy. In spite of this the evaluation of the crop productions is now oriented to give additional values to the geographical origin and to the environmental and socio cultural aspects of the agricultural goods. In this context, arose a very high interest for the typical products, a sector where Italy is well represented at European level in spite of one of the greater percentage of typical products. Consumers appreciate the peculiar distinctive sensory characteristics of these foods (Lovatti and Castagnoli, 1999) and consider them safer than the others because of the high number of controls carried out on them. Moreover, a big public interest is also attributed to typical food products for their role in stimulating the economy of some protected areas, in preserving the biodiversity linked to local crop varieties and animal races and moreover in keeping alive ancient traditions in food processing. For all these reasons, together the higher cost of production, the selling prices of typical and traditional products are higher compared with the commercial products. Therefore, there is a considerable interest in new methods that permit geographical and variety identification of alimentary products, and that consent the recognition of possible frauds.