Abstract: The study of the mechanical characteristics of potatoes can guide the design of potato harvesting, processing and transportation equipment to effectively reduce damage of potatoes. Traditionally, potato is considered as a linear elastic material and no bio-yield point. In this paper, fresh potato samples are cut as a cylindrical specimen and conducted compression tests using a Food Texture Analyzer. The elastic-plastic characteristics of potatoes is discovered through the force-displacement relationship of potato specimen. The potato failure stress, elastic modulus, tangential modulus and Poisson’s ratio are calculated from the compression tests, and the finite element analysis is conducted. The results show that there is a bio-yield point in potatoes. After the compression force of the potato specimen exceeds the bio-yield point, the compression displacement and plastic deformation are approximately proportional linear relationship. When potatoes are impacted, damage is more likely to occur inside the potato and occurs mainly within the inner tangent sphere with the potato collision point as the tangent point, which is consistent with the mechanical characteristics of elastic-plastic material and with the existing damage experimental results.