Effect of chemical pre-treatments on processing qualities of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.)

Pre-treatment is an essential step before processing of food materials. Many researchers have investigated the effect of different pre treatments on various fruits, vegetables and other foods for drying. In the present investigation, different pre-treatments were studied on different quality parameters of the chips and flour. The highest recovery of chips (22.20 %) and flour (22.60 %) was recorded in T7 (blanched slices soaked in 0.1% citric acid) and T8 (blanched pieces soaked in 0.5% sodium metabisulphite) respectively. Further the treatment T8 also recorded other beneficial characters like low moisture content (13.97), water activity (0.24), non-enzymatic browning (0.103). However, the treatment T4 (unblanched slices soaked in 0.5% sodium metabisulphite) had given beneficial results on sensory scores for texture (7.33) and overall acceptance (8.00) with chips and good quality parameters like color and appearance (8.92), taste and flavor (7.93) and overall acceptability (8.25) with floor. Hence the treatment T8 and T4 were proved to be the best ones for preparing chips and flour respectively.