Sweet potatoes of all sizes and shapes will be used to make a new
pureed food ingredient. Photo courtesy of the Louisiana Sweet Potato
Commission. |
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Sweet Potato Puree Adds to Bottom Line
By Rosalie Marion
Bliss March 26, 2008
Batches of a nutritious, shelf-stable sweet potato puree to be used as
a food ingredient are being rolled out today at a new sweet potato processing
facility owned by Yamco LLC in Snow Hill, NC. The premium food ingredient is
now commercially available to manufacturers for use in a variety of finished
products such as baked goods, soups, baby foods, beverages and nutraceuticals.
This new, high-quality food ingredient is made possible by a unique,
rapid-microwave-heating process. The process was developed, tested and jointly
patented by collaborators with North Carolina State University (NC State) in Raleigh, the Agricultural Research
Service (ARS) on behalf of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA), and
Industrial Microwave Systems, L.L.C. (IMS), Morrisville, NC.
Food scientist
Van-Den
Truong, with the Raleigh-based
ARS
Food Science Research Unit, and his collaborators tested the product
extensively at an NC State pilot plant. The collaborators include NC State food
engineers Josip Simunovic, Kenneth Swartzel, K. P. Sandeep and Gary Cartwright
and graduate student Pablo Coronel. Their testing ensured that the puree
exhibits ideal nutrient and color retention with little flavor loss under
sterile processing conditions. The result is a value-added food ingredient that
is shelf-stable at room temperature.
The patented process was licensed in 2007 to Yamco LLC for exclusive
commercial production of sweet potato puree.
For farmers, the new process provides a new market for
less-than-perfect sizes or shapes of sweet potatoes that might ordinarily be
discarded. That's because all sweet potato sizes and shapes can be used to make
the new, shelf-stable puree. North Carolina farmers produce more sweet potatoes
than growers in any other state, accounting for 43 percent of the annual $290
million U.S. sweet potato crop in 2006.
Sweet potatoes are often called a "nutritional powerhouse" because
they are very high in beta carotene. They also contain phenolic compounds,
vitamin C, vitamin B6, dietary fiber and potassium, among other nutrients.
ARS is the USDA's chief scientific research agency.