Vol. 11, Issue 7 (2022)

Author(s):
Suman Soni and Ritika B Yadav

Abstract:
The study was done to see the effects of pre-treatments and drying methods on sweet potato chips and to develop a method for the preparation of sweet potato chips with high consumer acceptability. The sweet potato slices of uniform thickness were subjected to different pre-treatments such as blanching in boiling water and brine solution followed by soaking in potassium metabisulphite (KMS) solution. The pre-treated slices were dried by different methods of drying (hot air oven, sun, microwave oven). The dried chips were fried in refined soyabean oil at 165-185 0C for 25-30 sec. The dried and fried sweet potato chips were analyzed for their physicochemical properties i.e. moisture content, β-carotene, non-enzymatic browning (NEB), and ash content. The fried chips were also analyzed for moisture content, oil uptake, NEB, and sensory characteristics. It was observed that slices given pre-treatment of blanching in boiling 2.0% brine solution showed the highest drying rate whereas blanching in boiling water showed the lowest drying rate. Out of all pre-treatments, the β-carotene retention was found to be highest in the hot air oven-dried samples of slices given blanching pretreatment in boiling water followed by soaking in 0.2% KMS solution (sample (0.374µg/100g); whereas, the Sun Dried sample (0.034µg/100g), showed the lowest value. The moisture content of Dried & fried sweet potato chips varied from 4.17 to 6.95% & 1.06 to 1.85%, respectively. Out of four pre-treatments, KMS (0.2%) treated sample showed the lowest NEB both in dried and fried chips. Brine blanched KMS (0.2%) treated samples showed maximum overall acceptability.