Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato Flour Obtained by Drying in Microwave and Hot Air

Production, acceptability, nutritional and pasting properties of orange-flesh sweet potato, cowpea and banana flour mix

Promoting the intake of foods rich in vitamin A is key to combating the increase in vitamin A deficiency. This research focused on the utilization of orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (a tuber-based food), cowpea (a pulse), and ripe bananas (a fruit) for the production of flour mix as a means to reduce Vitamin A deficiency in children. Different ratios of sweet potato-cowpea-banana (PCB) mix, resulting in 8 different blended samples, were optimized. The flour mix was evaluated for its overall acceptability, vitamin A content, beta-carotene, and other nutritional and functional properties. The panelists rated the sweet potato-cowpea banana blends labeled PCB8 (60% OFSP, 30% cowpea, 5% ripe banana flour, and 5% sugar) as most preferred and acceptable with average scores of 8.96 points for color, 8.75 points for flavor, 8.88 points for appearance, 8.33 points for taste, 8.07 points for texture, and 8.39 points for overall acceptability on a 9-point hedonic scale. The vitamin A and beta-carotene contents ranged 7.62 to 8.35 mg/100 g and 0.15-0.17 mg/100 g for all blends. A significant difference in the functional properties of the flour mix were observed with an increase in the ratio of sweet potato flour addition. Findings from this study show that the flour mix PCB4 (65% sweet potato, 30% cowpea, and 5% ripe banana flour) was acceptable (8.15) and is recommended based on its vitamin A content (8.35 mg/100 g), nutritional properties, and functional properties. The study showed that locally available food commodities have good nutritional value that will help reduce vitamin A deficiency in children.

Karakteristik Mi Berbasis Ubi Jalar dengan Substitusi Pati Sagu atau Pati Ubi Banggai

Sweet potato is a local food that can be used to support food diversification programs. It can be used as a raw material to produce a diverse type of food products, for example  noodles. The addition of sago starch and banggai starch to sweet potato noodle dough is to improve the quality of noodles because these two starches are more prone to retrograde. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of starch type, extrusion temperature, and water addition on the sweet potato noodles’ quality. The types of starch added were sago starch and banggai starch, with extrusion temperature settings, which were 90 and 95°C, and the water additions were 40 and 35%. Analysis was carried out on the characterization of the flour and physical properties of sweet potato noodles. The best noodle processing conditions were with the addition of 15% sago starch, 95°C extrusion temperature, and 40% water added. This formula produced sweet potato noodles with low brightness, having redness and yellowish colour. It had a hardness value above 3000 g, with higher elasticity and elongation than the other formulas, and also had lower adhesiveness and  cooking loss value.

Effect of Sieve Particle Size and Blend Proportion on the Quality Properties of Peeled and Unpeeled Orange Fleshed Sweet Potato Composite Flours

Orange fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) has great potentials to improve the nutritional benefits of bakery products when processed into quality flour. This study investigated the effects of sieve particle sizes (250 μm and 500 μm) and flour blend proportions on the physicochemical, nutritional, functional and pasting properties of peeled and unpeeled OFSP composite flours. Peeled OFSP composite flours had significantly (p < 0.05) higher crude protein (CP), lightness (L*), oil absorption capacity (OAC) and water solubility (WS) but lower crude fiber (CF), bioactive compounds (except ascorbic acid), water absorption capacity (WAC) and swelling capacity (SC) than the unpeeled OFSP composite flours. The sieve particle size had no significant (p> 0.05) effect on nutritional and pasting properties. However, OFSP-based flours sieved with 500 μm mesh particle size had a significantly (p < 0.05) higher WAC and SC but a lower WS than corresponding 250 μm mesh flours. The proportions of flour blends greatly (p < 0.001) influenced all quality properties of OFSP composite flours. Generally, OFSP composite flours had higher CF, bioactive compounds, WAC, SC and WS, but lower CP, fat, OAC and pasting properties than wheat flour. The quality properties indicated that peeled and unpeeled OFSP flours sieved with a 250 μm or 500 μm mesh size have great potentials as ingredients in the bakery industry.