Kerala-based ICAR-CTCRI to launch four value-added products from sweet potato varieties with orange and purple flesh

As I spot into the muffin, thing astir the softness and somewhat grainy texture revealed that it was made from orange-fleshed saccharine potato. Or the cute purple-coloured gummy that came adjacent was prepared utilizing purple-fleshed saccharine potato. There was much — cookies, chips, kulfi, kesari, crystal cream, ready-to-cook pasta — each successful shades of orangish and purple arranged successful solid bowls.

It was a feast for the eyes and the palate arsenic we stood astatine the ICAR-CTCRI (Central Tuber Crops Research Institute) astatine Sreekariyam successful Thiruvananthapuram, arsenic the unit arranged the products. ICAR-CTCRI, nether the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), which has been conducting R&D successful tropical tuber crops since 1963, has added different feather to its cap. It has obtained licence to manufacture 4 products — kulfi, muffins, gummies and cookies — from the caller saccharine murphy varieties, that is orange-fleshed Bhu Sona and purple-fleshed Bhu Krishna. The varieties were launched astir a decennary ago.

“To commencement with, we volition bid members of Kudumbashree [Kerala’s women-oriented poorness eradication mission] aboriginal this month. Once they larn the technique, they tin spell up with making the products and merchantability done respective Kudumbashree units,” says G Byju, director, ICAR-CTCRI.

The hands-on grooming volition beryllium fixed astatine the Techno Incubation Centre connected the campus, which connection facilities for producing tuber-based products, too giving method enactment and acting arsenic a accumulation and processing hub.

He adds, “Sweet potato, arsenic such, has gained popularity arsenic a dietary enactment crossed the globe arsenic the tuber is affluent successful carbohydrates, bioactive compounds and vitamins. Research connected the tuber has been going connected present and astatine our determination centre astatine Bhubaneswar successful Odisha.”

The Institute has truthful acold developed 22 varieties of saccharine murphy and the nutritional illustration alteration betwixt antithetic soma colours. While probe has been going connected to nutrient functional foods (products that supply wellness benefits beyond basal nutrition) for galore years, this is the archetypal acceptable of products to beryllium launched from immoderate assortment of saccharine murphy by ICAR-CTCRI. So far, the Institute has brought retired galore products from cassava.

“The orangish and purple varieties are bio-fortified, meaning they person higher nutrient density. While Bhu Sona is affluent successful beta-carotene, which gets converted to Vitamin A, Bhu Krishna has anthocyanin, an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compound,” says Sajeev MS, main idiosyncratic astatine the Institute.

It was past twelvemonth that the Institute obtained the licence to commercially nutrient the 4 products. “We started with kulfi. The basal is saccharine murphy puree. You boil oregon cook the saccharine murphy to marque the puree. Then you adhd the accustomed ingredients that spell into a kulfi – caller cream, milk/milk powder, sweetener etc. In muffins and cookies, saccharine murphy flour is used. A tiny magnitude of maida is utilized arsenic binding agent. The cookies person saccharine murphy and digit millet and comes with choco spot fillings,” says C Pradeepika, scientist, who has been spearheading the probe and experimentation down the manufacture of the products.

She adds that the process involves playing with the ingredients. “It takes clip to get astatine the nonstop combination. As a nutrient technologist, I probe antithetic formulation and survey astir assorted biochemical parameters earlier presenting it for consumers’ acceptance.”

About the different products that were displayed for us, similar kesari and pasta, she adds, “We wanted to amusement that determination is simply a ample scope for value-addition successful saccharine potato, particularly with these 2 varieties. It is to beryllium noted that we person retained the earthy orangish and purple colours successful these products.”

Meanwhile, the Institute is each acceptable to patent the exertion progressive successful preparing the crystal cream, rava (semolina), and flour from the 2 varieties. “The crystal pick is synbiotic, meaning it is some prebiotic (has fibre that feeds unrecorded bacteria) and probiotic (has unrecorded beneficial bacteria). Basically, it is simply a gut-friendly frozen dessert,” she says, adding, “As for the rava, which is simply a substitute for wheat semolina, and flour, we are patenting the exertion that retains the earthy colour. The colour usually fades erstwhile we adust the murphy successful the prima oregon successful dryer. The caller exertion retains the earthy colour.”

Odisha continues to person the largest saccharine murphy cultivation successful the country, portion Kerala is rather acold behind. However, CTCRI has been promoting the cultivation of antithetic biofortified saccharine murphy varieties successful antithetic parts of the State, predominantly successful Palakkad and Idukki districts.