Abstract
Summary“Consumers have their say: assessing preferred quality traits of roots, tubers and cooking bananas, and implications for breeding” special issue, brings together new knowledge about quality traits required for roots, tubers and bananas (RTB) varieties to successfully meet diverse user preferences and expectations, along the variety development and RTB value chains (production, processing, marketing, food preparation, consumption). Key RTB crops in sub‐Saharan Africa are cassava, yams, sweetpotatoes, potatoes and bananas/plantains. They are mainly consumed directly as boiled pieces or pounded in the form of smooth, not sticky, and stretchable dough. They are also stewed, steamed or fried. Cassava, the most widely grown RTB, is generally boiled, stewed or steamed in Eastern and Southern Africa, and in West and Central Africa is usually processed directly into derivative products, e.g. whole root fermentation through retting or heap fermentation; fermentation/dewatering of the mash. Biophysical and social knowledge presented in this issue help elaborate goals for both the processing unit operations (food scientist control) and variety traits (breeder control).
Highlights
“Consumers have their say: assessing preferred quality traits of roots, tubers and cooking bananas, and implications for breeding” special issue, brings together new knowledge about quality traits required for roots, tubers and bananas (RTB) varieties to successfully meet diverse user preferences and expectations, along the variety development and RTB value chains
We introduce the key root, tuber and banana (RTB) crops and their derived food products in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), summarise the goals and methodologies of assessing end-user preferences aimed at breeding suitable varieties and highlight some key findings of the research reported in the special issue
The authors are affiliated with national research programmes, universities, CGIAR centres (IITA (Nigeria), CIP (Peru) and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (Colombia)), NRI, CIRAD, NGOs and others
Summary
“Consumers have their say: assessing preferred quality traits of roots, tubers and cooking bananas, and implications for breeding” special issue, brings together new knowledge about quality traits required for roots, tubers and bananas (RTB) varieties to successfully meet diverse user preferences and expectations, along the variety development and RTB value chains (production, processing, marketing, food preparation, consumption). We introduce the key root, tuber and banana (RTB) crops and their derived food products in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), summarise the goals and methodologies of assessing end-user preferences aimed at breeding suitable varieties and highlight some key findings of the research reported in the special issue – Consumers have their say: assessing preferred quality traits of roots, tubers and cooking bananas, and implications for breeding. This issue includes 23 original research papers, five review papers and one methodology paper.
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