In West Africa, sweetpotato is widely consumed in deep-fried forms, the most popular being so-called chunk fries--large wedges of sweetpotato in contrast to commercial French fries. Surprisingly, no one had studied this dominant form of serving fried sweetpotato in the informal sector before this study on fried sweetpotato user preferences.  We carried out this research in major sweetpotato producing communities of Kano and Kwara States in Nigeria, and in the Upper East region of Ghana. Information was obtained from individual farmers, traders, key informants, expert fryers and focus group discussions conducted separately for men and women to get each gender’s perspective.

Four to eleven sweetpotato varieties were being grown in the study areas. None were exclusively used for processing fried products, as in rural households is mostly consumed at home as a boiled root. In contrast, up to 75% of the sweetpotato produced was consumed as chunk fries in urban centers. This high proportion of chunk fries in the market share calls for targeted breeding efforts to develop varieties suitable for frying, but that also must taste good boiled.

The key user-preferred quality attributes for sweetpotato frying include: medium to big raw root size, little or no exudates (“latex”) after peeling or slicing raw roots, hardness to slice roots, short frying time (3-5 minutes), attractiveness of the fried product (uniform yellow or orange chunk fries being preferred), exterior crispness of the fried chunks/slices, not being soggy or oily, and fried slices or chunks that are filling or satisfying when eaten. Most of these desirable eating quality attributes highlighted by the processors and consumers are functions of starch properties.

This information will assist breeders in determining traits to be bred for in West Africa and elsewhere to obtain sweetpotato varieties that have the preferred quality traits for sweetpotato fried products.