Development of Process Technology for Sweet potato Flour

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is an important tuber crop belonging to family Convolvulaceae and is an herbaceous perennial but cultivated as annual. Sweet potato is an important starchy food crop. It is popularly called "Sakarkand" in India.In this study slices of sweet potato slices were pretreated with different pretreatments such as; dipped in 0.1% w/v Potassium Metabisulfite (KMS), dipped in 1% w/v Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) and blanched in hot water. Pretreated sweet potato slices were dried in a mechanical tray dryer at 50, 55, 60 and 65°C and their drying characteristics such as rate of moisture content, drying rate, moisture diffusivity and rehydration ratio were studied. Chemical properties of sweet potato flour such as protein, starch, total sugar, total soluble solids, ash content, fiber content and colour was determined.