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