Using Competitive Technology Intelligence to Determine Potato Peel Upcycling Trends and Applications

Abstract

In the potato processing industry, specifically in potato chip manufacturing, potato peel is one of the main byproducts. Potato peel needs to be treated and managed properly to prevent environmental damage and promote economic growth through its use by innovating traditional processes, technologies, and products. In this context, Competitive Technology Intelligence (CTI) is a tool that provides relevant knowledge to support decision-making and strategic planning, that can create value in potato peel processing. For this reason, this thesis applied a CTI methodology using scientometric, patentometric, and product market analysis to reveal scientific and technological developments in potato peel byproduct. A Global Query was developed by an iterative process with expert feedback to retrieve scientific documents and published patents from renowned databases, published from January 1st, 2018, to April 30th, 2023. After deduplication and a manual verification process, 393 scientific publications and 82 published patents were collected. The publications were manually classified based on the publication focus in three main categories: Application, Process, and Economic Analysis. The growth kinetics, top journals and countries, and number of citations were determined. Market information was gathered from renowned databases and customer needs, industry development, and potato peel products on the market were identified. Potato peel identified applications were as a substrate, adsorbent, biopolymer, antioxidant, agriculture component, animal and insect feed, and functional ingredient. The main processing techniques were bioactive compounds and biopolymers extraction and pretreatment. The most prolific countries from scientific documents were India, Egypt, and China, and the intellectual property (IP) offices with the most published patents were China National Intellectual Property Administration, World Intellectual Property Organization, and Intellectual Property India. Potato peel research publication rate was affected by global COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, consumers desire to lower their environmental impact and need products that are plastic-free, benefit their health, and help them to adapt to harsh weather conditions. In addition, there is a need to promote the term upcycle since many consumers are not familiarized with it, and the ones who do relate it with reducing waste.