Sweet Potato Festival (SWEET POTATO FACTS & HISTORY)

Sweet Potato Facts & History

SWEET POTATO FACTS & HISTORY

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a native American plant found by Columbus and his shipmates, probably from the West Indies islands off the coast of Yucatan and Honduras.

Sweet potatoes and yams from a culinary standpoint are quite similar. However, sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) and the true yams (various Dioscorea species) are from very different plant families. Yam is an English derivative of the African word “nyami” referring to the starchy, edible root of the Dioscorea plants. Traditionally sweet potatoes have white flesh. When producers and shippers initiated production of the orange-flesh sweet potato into the southern United States, producers and shippers needed to distinguish them from the white-flesh types. Most “yams” marketed in the United States actually are sweet potatoes with a relatively moist texture and orange flesh. Although “sweet potato” and “yam” are generally used interchangeably, the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that sweet potatoes under the label “yam” always be accompanied by “sweet potato” to differentiate them from true yams.

The sweet potato is a nutritious and economical food. One baked sweet potato (3 1/2 ounce serving) provides over 8,800 IU of vitamin A or about twice the recommended daily allowance. The vegetable provides 42 percent of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for vitamin C, 6 percent of the RDA for calcium, 10 percent of the RDA for iron, and 8 percent of the RDA for thiamine for healthy adults. It is low in sodium and is a good source of fiber and other important vitamins and minerals. A complex carbohydrate food source, it provides beta carotene which may be a factor in reducing the risk of certain cancers (Texas A&M data).

In the northern United States, the sweet potato is used only as human food, and to only a small extent. In the southern United States, it is used far more extensively used in regional quisines, and a large part of the crop is fed to livestock. Efforts are being made to breed varieties that will inexpensively produce large yields, so that they can be grown specifically for feed or industrial applications.The sweet potato generally contains more starch than the Irish potato, and the starch has properties that are especially useful in many food products and manufacturing processes. At this time, however, the growing and handling of the crop is too costly for it to be produced just for starch production.

Widely establish through out the world, the sweet potato is a favorite staple of many cultures and is an ingredient in many ethnic cuisines. In many developing countries, it now is grown as a substitute for rice and corn. Grown mainly for food, it also has great potential as a source of local production of value-added products and ingredients. These include food products, animal feed, and some industrial products that include flour, starch and pectin for local and export markets. The flour can be fermented to make products such as soy sauce and alcohol, or if immediately cooked, can then be further processed into wine, vinegar and nata (nata de coco is a popular desert or “on-the-go” in the Philippines and adjacent Asian countries and is becoming very popular in Japan. Nata is a chewy translucent mixture that bears some similarity to American canned “fruit cocktail,” it is a ready-to-eat mixture of coconut, sweet potato and fruit, and usually is packaged in a single-serving can or plastic cup.)

Most sweet potato production is in the southern United States, and total production (12,000,000 cwt: $208,600,000) primarily is centered in two states. Forty percent is from North Carolina, another 40 percent is from Louisiana; with California, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas making up the bulk of the remainder.

With respect to North Carolina, a top producing state, it is estimated that more than 70 percent of commercially grown product in North Carolina is directly sold into one of three outlets: chain stores, terminal market facilities or foodservice providers. The remaining 30 percent is sold to processors for canning, flaking, chipping, frying, freezing or baby food.

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