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Boiled yam end-user preferences and implications for trait evaluation

The article has been published in a special issue called “Consumers have their say: Assessing preferred quality traits of roots, tubers and cooking bananas, and implications for breeding” in the International Journal of Food Science and Technology, led by the RTBfoods project.

Quality characteristics’ demand of yam and derived products are specific to stakeholders in a food chain. Regarding boiled yam, consumers’ demand for quality characteristics are not well understood since all yam varieties are not really acceptable for boiling and consuming.

Our study aimed to identify the quality characteristics of raw and boiled yam, required by producers, traders, processors and consumers in Benin, and how they influence varietal preferences. This initiative was part of work package 1 of the ‘Breeding RTB Products for End User Preferences’ or RTBfoods project, which aims to link local consumer preferences with breeders’ selection criteria to ensure adoption along the value-chains of cassava, yam, sweetpotato, potato and cooking banana products. This includes a state of knowledge review, gendered food mapping in rural and urban communities, processing diagnosis and consumer testing in rural and urban consumers. Gender and social group considerations should be taken into account for yam variety preferences. Predictive characteristics of yam for producing a high- and low-quality boiled yam were related to morphological or physicochemical characteristics: peeled yam discoloration and mucilage content being negatively appreciated while the ease of peeling, viscous state of cooking water and the ease of breaking yam into pieces positively valued. High-quality boiled yam should be white or yellowish, sticky to the fingers, no fibrous, easy to chew, crumbly/friable, with a sweet taste and a good smell. The overall liking of boiled yam is greatly penalised by a too dark colour, hard to the touch, no sweet taste and no friability while eating. Thus, the consumer expectations can be met by understanding and paying attention to both of the high- and low-quality characteristics of a variety.

In short, the quality characteristics of boiled yam motivate the varietal preferences and decisions of producers, processors and consumers. However, in further studies, it would be interesting to take into account the variance in sensory quality along the yam tuber (proximal, middle and distal) as a possible new acceptability factor.

Published: 02/12/2020