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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Advanced Life Support (ALS) system has selected the sweetpotato as a candidate crop to be grown on long-term space missions. There is limited research regarding the production of sweetpotato bread. The objectives of this research were to: i) determine the chemical properties (moisture, loaf volume, and texture) of bread supplemented with different levels of sweetpotato flour (SPF); and ii) evaluate the structural properties of bread supplemented with different levels of SPF using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). Bread formulations were supplemented with different levels of SPF, namely: 50% SPF to 50% whole-wheat flour (WWF); 55% SPF to 45% WWF; 60% SPF to 40% WWF; and 65% SPF to 35% WWF. The maximum % strain required to cut the breads into two pieces was used to indicate texture (firmness).

This study compared the physicochemical properties and consumer acceptance of seven nutrient film technique (NFT) and eight microporous tube membrane nutrient delivery system (MTMS) grown hydroponic carrots. NFT-grown carrots had moisture contents range from 86.3–92.1% while the MTMS-grown carrots a range of 82.0–92.0%. β-carotene contents for the NFT-carrots ranged between 2,030–9,900 μg/100 g and for the MTMS-carrots between 2,977–10,488 μg/100 g. Royal Chantenay-NFT- and Mignon-MTMS-grown were the lightest in color, whereas, Mignon-NFT, and Little Finger-MTMS were the darkest. Paramex MTMS-grown was the most acceptable cultivar to the consumers. Paramex, Kinko and Mignon have good potential to be considered for further screening.

The sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam) is a candidate crop for future space missions. However, sweetpotatoes are highly perishable and difficult to store, therefore, novel avenues for processing the surplus roots into value-added products that are commercially viable are needed. Technology was developed on a laboratory scale for the production of sweetpotato syrup and: i) the effect of varying levels of α-amylase on syrup quality determined; and ii) the storage stability and consumer acceptance of the syrup evaluated. Three levels of thermostable bacterial α-amylases (1.5, 3.0, 4.5 mL) were used for conversion of sweetpotato starch (SPS) into glucose syrup. The 1.5 mL α-amylase-treated was dropped from the experiment because there was no hydrolysis. The enzymatic conversion of SPS into glucose was significantly higher (P<0.05) for the 4.5 mL α-amylase-treated compared to the 1.5 and 3.0 mL levels.

Protein profiles and morphological characteristics of two newly developed sweetpotato varieties (TU-82-155 and J6/66) were compared to a commercial variety (Beauregard) using SDS-PAGE, and SEM, respectively. Under reducing and denatured conditions, electrophoresis displayed the major protein, sporamins, at 25 kDa, for all the three cultivars. No major variability in protein profile or morphological structures, among the sweetpotatoes, was observed. Presence of sporamin was established and total protein was higher in TU-82-155 on a dry weight basis. Starch granules were slightly larger and more sparsely distributed in J6/66.

The objectives of this study were: 1) to isolate starch and process flour from three cultivars of sweetpotatoes, and determine their proximate composition, particle size and crystallinity; and 2) to rank selected appearance, texture and flavor attributes of the sweetpotato cultivars. The mean moisture contents of the starches ranged from 4.4±0.2 to 6.0±0.3%, while color values ranged from 80.9±0.8 to 86.9±0.4. Flours had moisture contents of 3.9±0.1 to 4.3±0.2, and L* values ranged from 82.8±0.2 to 85.0±0.03. The starch granules appeared to be round or oval with characteristic dimensions in the range of 2.6–36.0μm. Consumers ranked the J6/66 as significantly least preferred (p<0.05) than the other two cultivars.