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Title: PHYSICAL, COMPOSITIONAL AND SENSORY PROPERTIES OF FRENCH FRY-TYPE PRODUCTS FROM FIVE SWEETPOTATO SELECTIONS

Author
item Walter Jr, William
item COLLINS, W - NCSU
item TRUONG, VAN - NCSU
item FINE, T - NCSU

Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/7/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Sweetpotato breeding programs in the United States have generated selections with a wide range of textural and flavor characteristics. Such diversity can lead to the identification of certain selections as being especially suitable for specific processed products. However, short of preparing and evaluating a given product from each selection, there is no way to find which selection might be suitable. In this research we compared selected physical and compositional properties of raw and fried sweetpotato selections with the sensory attributes of the fried selections to determine if this information could be used to predict flavor and/or textural properties of the fried product. We found that selected compositional properties of both raw and fried sweetpotato selections were correlated with some sensory properties of sweetpotato French fries. Using these compositional properties, plant breeders would be able to screen large numbers of selections for these sensory properties and, thus, eliminate the necessity for extensive, time-consuming sensory panels. This would be of benefit to plant breeding programs.

Technical Abstract: Strips from five sweetpotato (SP) cultivars (cv) representing two different texture/flavor types were prepared and frozen. They were then fried and their flavor and texture evaluated by sensory panels. Also, selected physical and compositional analyses were performed on raw and fried SP. An untrained preference panel tended to score the flavor of the sweeter types highest and the texture of the firm types higher than sweet types. A trained profile panel identified and scored four flavor notes and three texture categories, with a total of ten notes. This research indicated that the intensity of the flavor notes sweetness and starch and the intensity of texture notes first-bite moistness and first-bite hardness were highly correlated with some of the compositional parameters. Correlation between compositional parameters and the flavor and texture note intensities listed above could be developed into a system to predict those sensory properties in newly developed selections without having to resort to sensory analyses.