THE PROCESSING, PACKAGING, AND ACCEPTABILITY OF YAM STRIPS FOR USE AS CONVENIENT FOOD

ABSTRACT

Yam is one of the most important food commodities cultivated in Ghana. Nevertheless, majority of those yams go waste due to interrelated factors such as postharvest losses, deterioration, and weight loss in stored yams. The aim of the study was to process and package yam into strips to enhance its use and marketability to nonproducing countries just like Irish potato. Two cultivars of white yam (Discorea rotundata), were used for the study. They were processed into strips and packaged in a 1.5kg polyethylene bag which was designed and labelled for the purpose. The packaged product was frozen using an Ocean freezer at a temperature of -18oC for storage studies over a period of four weeks. The frozen yam strips were fried and presented to respondents on a weekly basis for four weeks to assess them in order of preference with respect to their sensory attributes (size, colour, aroma, taste, moistness, hardness, crispiness, sogginess and overall acceptability). Chemical analysis was also conducted on the frozen yam samples every one week for four weeks to determine the level of moisture, sugars (sucrose, reducing sugars, and total sugars) and free fatty acids. The result of the sensory evaluation showed that fried yam strips were found to be acceptable as most of the participants indicated that they were satisfied. On the other hand, the results of the chemical analysis obtained had no significant change from the first week to the fourth week of analyses. Hence, the yam samples after storage in the freezer for a month (4 weeks) had no chemical change and could therefore be further preserved. It was recommended that the yam strips should be thawed before frying, for this gives a uniform texture as compared to direct frying from the frozen state.