Sweet potato product development in Latin America

The project structured eight sub-projects with the aim of developing sweet potato products for human and animal consumption, both directly and those resulting from the processing of roots and foliage.

• The production and consumption of sweet potato paste in baby food was evaluated.
• Productive root varieties were selected and the foliage yield of different clones and the effect of their consumption by animals was estimated.
• It was shown that root meal can complement corn in sheep diets, without detriment to yield and meat quality.
• It was also shown that the addition of sweet potato to feed corn increases milk production.
• Five dual-purpose (simultaneous production of roots for human consumption and foliage for animal feed) clones were selected from the CIP germplasm collection.
• In terms of new product development, a local variety was genetically modified with the wheat glutenin gene to improve the quality of sweet potato flour for use in baking and other industrial processes.
• A shorter procedure was developed to produce sweet potato plants transformed by somatic embryogenesis, reducing the time from six to two months.
• A post-harvest technology was successfully tested on the roots for export purposes, including curing the roots to avoid deterioration during the shipping period.