104C-17 |
Juice yield of sweet potato culls |
P. C. Coggins1, R. A. Kelly2, and J. A. WILBOURN1. (1) Dept. of Food Science & Technology, Mississippi State Univ., 207 Herzer Bldg., Campus Mailstop 9805, Mississippi State, MS 39762-9805, (2) School of Human Sciences, Mississippi State Univ., 336 Lloyd-Ricks Bldg., Campus Mailstop 9745, Mississippi State, MS 39762-9745 Nationally, approximately 97,900 acres of sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) were planted for the year 2001 with a yield of 156 Cwt. Many of the sweet potatoes are left in the field as unmarketable culls. A juicing technique used to produce a value-added product from the culls would be valuable to the sweet potato farmer. This process would enable the producer to turn an unmarketable product into a potentially profitable juice product. The research objective was to determine the usable yields of sweet potato culls by extracting the juice. This would provide a value-added juice product for sweet potato farmers. Sweet potato culls were collected, washed, and dried. Samples were chopped, weighed and processed with an automatic juice extractor (Juiceman Jr., Mount Prospect, IL). The extracted juice and remaining pulp were removed and weighed. Percent juice, pulp, and loss were calculated on a weight basis. Results showed that when processed with a grinding/centrifugal type juice extractor, an average of 53.6 percent of the initial weight from sweet potato culls can be extracted as juice. Also, as the initial weight increased, the percent juice extracted increased. The combined solids collected from the extracted pulp and the pulp remaining after equipment disassembly was on average 42.66 percent of the initial weight. The unsalvageable percent of juice and pulp was on average 3.93 percent. These results suggest that sweet potato culls yield approximately half of their original weight as juice. Juice extraction may be a viable option for processing non-market grade sweet potato culls. Sweet potato juice may be consumed as a beverage or combined with other juices to form a variety of juice blends.
Session 104C, Fruit & Vegetable Products: Vegetables (Processed)
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