Replication data for: Consumer preference testing of boiled sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) using crowdsourced citizen science in Ghana and Uganda

Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) is an underutilised crop with good adaptability under low rainfall conditions, poor soils, and minimal farm inputs or labour. It is a nutritionally rich, climate-smart perennial root crop. These agronomic attributes, together with the relatively short growing period, render it an ideal candidate crop for enhancing food security and improving livelihoods in Africa. A crowdsourcing citizen science approach, triadic comparison of technologies (tricot), could support the identification of potential genotypes for the market of sweetpotato. We evaluated whether the tricot approach can produce reliable information about consumer preferences. We studied consumer preferences related to boiled sweetpotato prepared from 27 genotypes in Ghana and Uganda. We were specifically interested in evaluating if a more independent style of evaluation (Home tasting) would produce results comparable to an approach that involves control over preparation (Community tasting). Two trials were performed and compared. In Home tasting 420 participants received raw roots in randomised variety combinations to cook, taste and score at their homes whilst in Centralised tasting, 1041 participants received the boiled varieties to taste and score at a centralised locations. Participants ranked the varieties in order of overall preference, color, and taste. The results show significant differences based on district, highlighting the importance of citizen science trials in identifying consumer preference based on geographic location. Both Home and Centralised tasting approaches gave similar rankings for best overall acceptability, which was strongly correlated to taste. Although there was gender balance amongst participants who took part in the Home tasting compared to the Centralised tasting exercise, no significant relationships between gender and the rankings for overall acceptability were observed. Our results show that the tricot approach can be successfully applied to consumer preference studies. Future studies should include more quality attributes to further decipher the taste attribute used by consumers in ranking the varieties. Overall, breeders can benefit from using the citizen science to identify favourable consumer quality traits to target in demand-led breeding programmes, leading to increased uptake of new varieties.