PRODUCTION AND MARKET POTENTIAL OF SWEETPOTATO PICKLES

Abstract

Sweetpotato pickles which had undergone a curing process was successfully produced at the Philippine Root Crop Research and Training Center at the Leyte State University, Visca, Baybay, Leyte, Philippines. The process involves a modified brine fermentation method for shredded sweetpotato. This is a form of brine fermentation that encouraged the growth of lactic acid bacteria, the useful bacteria in human health. In this process, a significant reduction in curing time from 8 weeks to 6 days was observed. 'RC-2000', a high β-carotene, orange cultivar of sweetpotato was found to be suitable for the production of sweetpotato pickles. Randomly selected consumers from Ormoc City, Baybay and Manila rated the Jamaica sweet-mixed sweetpotato pickles with high acceptability scores. Comments and suggestions were also gathered and corresponding improvement on the product was made based on the comments. The market for bottled sweetpotato pickles was established in some selected outlets in Leyte. A return on investment (ROI) of as high as 27.55% was obtained using the new formulation of Jamaica sweet-mixed sweetpotato pickles. The acceptability of the pickles packed in 250-g bottles was still within the acceptable limit from 0 to 12 months of storage at normal room temperature.