Sweetpotato ranks seven among the most important food crops in the world. With
high carotene content, the orange-fleshed cultivars have a great potential in combating
vitamin A deficiency (VAD). Processing sweetpotato into flour would increase its shelf-life
while providing good quality food during off-season. Various dehydration technologies such
as hot air drying, drum drying, and spray drying have been used to produce sweetpotato
flour. However, these technologies are labor intensive and time consuming. Due to the
demand of sweetpotato flour as an ingredient in food processing industry, there is a need to
develop more efficient dehydration technologies to produce sweetpotato flour. Sweetpotato
flour processing requires washing, peeling, slicing or shredding, soaking, blanching, and
drying. All these steps are associated with nutrient losses and increases in cost of production.
Vortex dehydration technology® (VDT), also known as the Windhexe, was introduced by
GreenShift CleanTech Corporation. This technology simultaneously pulverizes and dries