Development of alternative flavour types of sweetpotato as a means of expanding consumption

The flavour of cooked root and tuber crops is a primary determinant in cons umer acceptance. Flavour is composed of taste and aroma and can be substant ially altered via plant breeding. Using sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.)] as a model, a sweetpotato line with culinary traits similar to baked white potatoes [Solanum tuberosum (L.)], was developed which has a much lower fla vour impact, in keeping with other staple crops (e.g., cassava, potato, and rice). The successful alteration of the flavour of a staple crop requires a combination of sensory testing and chemical analysis of critical flavour components (i.e., identification and quantification of the impact of each c omponent on the characteristic flavour). The volatile profiles and identity of odour-active compounds were determined for a traditional 'North America n' sweetpotato ('Jewel') and a non-sweet, staple-type line with a white pot ato flavour (GA90-16). 'Jewel' had substantially higher levels of 2-furmeth anol, 8-acetyl pyrrole, maltol, and geraniol, the latter three conferring s weet and (or) caramel notes to the aroma. GA90-16, in contrast, had low lev els of volatiles critical to the aroma of 'Jewel', and substantially higher levels of 2,3-nonadecanediol, a,4-decadienal, octyl ketone, and one uniden tified compound with a distinct white potato aroma.