Orange-fleshed sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) composite bread as a significant source of dietary vitamin A

Refining food recipes with orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) has the potential to improve dietary intake of vitamin A. The objectives of this study were to utilize OFSP in the development of two composite bread types and to assess their contribution to dietary intake of vitamin A using the dietary reference intake of lactating mothers. Two composite OFSP-wheat flour bread recipesvita butter bread and vita tea breadwere developed by incorporating 46% OFSP puree in existing 100% wheat flour bread recipes consumed by Ghanaians. A paired-preference test was used to profile the appearance, aroma, sweetness, and overall degree of liking of the vita butter bread and vita tea bread and their respective 100% wheat flour bread types. Weighed bread intake by lactating mothers (n=50) was used to estimate the contribution to dietary vitamin A based on the trans beta-carotene content. The developed vita butter bread and vita tea bread were most preferred by at least 77% (p<.05) of consumers (n=310) for all the attributes considered. The average daily intake by the lactating mothers for vita butter bread was 247g, and for vita tea bread was 196g. The trans beta-carotene content of vita butter bread and vita tea bread were found to be 1.333 mg/100g and 0.985 mg/100g, respectively. The estimated trans-beta-carotene intake was 3,293 mu g/day (vita butter) and 1,931 mu g/day (vita tea) based on the weighed bread intake, respectively, meeting 21% and 12% of the daily requirement (1,300 mu g RAE/day) for lactating mothers, the life stage group with the highest vitamin A requirement. OFSP therefore could composite wheat flour to bake butter and tea bread, and will contribute to significant amount of dietary intake of vitamin A.