Current efforts at the ARC include evaluating the suitability of popular
orange-fleshed cultivars for bread making using different formulations
from boiled and mashed sweet potato and from sweet potato flour (unpublished
data). The results will be used to establish small-medium
orange-fleshed sweet potato processing enterprises in rural communities.
Using sweet potato in bread making has large potential, as bread is
a staple food in South Africa. Whereas commercial bread made with
wheat flour is fortified per legislation, home-made bread is made mostly
with unfortified cake flour (Shisana et al., 2013). When replacing some of
the cake/bread flour with either boiled and mashed sweet potato or
sweet potato flour, it is important that dark-orange cultivars are used
to ensure that the baked bread provides significant amounts of β-
carotene (Low & Van Jaarsveld, 2008). Future studies will need to determine
the nutrient content of the bread made with different formulations
as well as microbial assessment and consumer acceptance.