Development of novel orange-fleshed sweet potato and pumpkin-based functional bread through optimized processing techniques
Domaine:
agriculturehealthcare
Food insecurity, hunger, and malnutrition persist as global challenges. Despite various interventions, the prevalence of food insecurity and hunger has been on the rise in recent times. Recent data indicates that approximately 702-824 million people worldwide experienced hunger, with 29.3% of the global population, equivalent to 2.3 billion individuals, facing moderate or severe food insecurity. The severity of hunger and malnutrition is pronounced in Africa, especially Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where 20% of the population is undernourished, potentially caused by climatic and socio-economic factors, The impact of climate change, population growth, urbanization and conflicts is projected to aggravate food and nutrition insecurity in developing countries. Furthermore, there is a growing incidence of metabolic-related diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer in developing countries which could be attributed to the consumption of foods high in digestible starch and low in dietary fibre. To address the escalating challenges of food and nutrition insecurity and achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger, and good health and well-being by 2030, it is imperative to diversify the food supply. This diversification should involve incorporating nutritious and climate-resilient underutilized crops (UCs) to supplement or reduce reliance on major crops like maize, rice, and wheat, which are sensitive to climate changes, high in digestible starch, and low in health-promoting phytochemicals. The principal goal of this study is to improve scientific knowledge on the influence of drying parameters on key quality attributes of dried orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) and pumpkin as well as to understand the influence of different processing factors on the quality attributes of OFSP and pumpkin flour composite bread. To achieve the research goal, the following specific objectives and hypotheses were established for execution.