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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Raleigh, North Carolina » Food Science and Market Quality and Handling Research Unit » Research » Research Project #437781

Research Project: Rapid Development and Commercialization of Sweetpotato Varieties for Food Processing

Location: Food Science and Market Quality and Handling Research Unit

Project Number: 6070-41000-010-036-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Feb 5, 2020
End Date: Nov 30, 2023

Objective:
The objective of this project is to develop new sweetpotato varieties for processing frozen food products with improved quality and nutritional value.

Approach:
Sweetpotato samples of early generations and advanced selections from the NC State University breeding program will be evaluated for processing of frozen products. These clones may have better processing characteristics than currently available commercial cultivars that are intended for the fresh market. The materials will be screened for dry matter content, starch content, sugar content (glucose, fructose, and sucrose), and beta-carotene content. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) will also be employed for rapidly estimating these chemical components. Samples will be scanned in diffuse reflectance mode in the visual and NIR range (400-2500 nm). The mean NIR spectra will be modeled against the analytical chemistry data. Frying trials will be conducted and data analyzed to determine the relationship between physico-chemical properties of novel sweetpotato genotypes and processed sweetpotato quality.