Abstract:
Sweet potato is one of the important and under exploited food crops grown in many countries of the
world including Sri Lanka. Although there is a high production, methods of utilization and industrial
application of sweet potato are limited. In order to increase its utilization, drying can be regarded as a cost
effective processing method. Current study was conducted to find out the possibility of using sweet
potato flour as an alternative for wheat flour in bakery industry. Solar dried sweet potato flour was mixed
with wheat flour and rice flour in different ratios; 75% Wheat flour and 25% Rice flour (Tl: control),
10% Sweet potato flour, 65% Wheat flour and 25% Rice flour (T2), and 15% Sweet potato flour, 60%
Wheat flour and 25% Rice flour (T3). According to the consumer preference, best performing treatment
was selected. Microbial and physico-chemical (moisture content, crude fiber, fat content, total ash, and
pH) characters of the selected combination were determined in triplicates. The storage quality of the
selected bun (10% sweet potato flour) packed in LDPE (250 gauge) with or without preservative (calcium
propionate-CP) such as T l; control (no added preservatives) T2; 0.3% CP, and T3; 0.15% CP was
examined for two weeks period by detecting the moisture (%), colour and microbial quality.
Incorporation of sweet potato flour at 10% was successful for preparation of bun with excellent
physicochemical and sensory qualities, and it can be stored for 14 days without significant quality
deterioration by incorporating of CP (0.3%) as a preservative.
