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Development of a food product profile for boiled and steamed sweetpotato in Uganda for effective breeding

The review 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.

This study sought to understand user preferences at various stages of preparation of raw, boiled and steamed sweetpotato, a staple food in Uganda. A sequential methodology, including state of knowledge review, gendered food mapping, processing diagnosis and consumer testing was used in Lira and Kamwenge districts. Preferred raw sweetpotato characteristics were, hard, large roots (≥ 3 cm diameter) with a smooth skin, sweet taste and hard texture, while mealiness, sweet taste and good sweetpotato smell were important attributes for boiled and steamed sweetpotato across sexes and geographical locations. Preference of the released orange-fleshed NASPOT 8 over the traditional white-fleshed varieties in this study highlights the potential for increased adoption of nutritionally improved varieties that match local consumers’ sensory preferences.

During food preparation, most women, highlighted ease of peeling and sappiness of raw roots. There were gender differences in quality characteristic preferences and perceived importance. Penalty analysis of consumer data showed that sweetness and firmness were key drivers of overall liking. Surprisingly, mealiness was not a key driver of overall liking even though it is widely expressed as a desirable trait. However, sweetness and firmness are attributes that can be targeted for improvement by breeders to enhance consumer acceptance. Subtle differences were noted in gender profiling for desired characteristics such as sweetness being higher priority for women than men. Gender norms and roles influenced the characteristics men and women leaned to, thus calling for increased gender awareness in participatory breeding initiatives.

These results will support breeding programmes in meeting specific end-user product profiles, selection criteria and uptake of new varieties.

Published: 04/11/2020