From the ACS Press Room A more healthful, gluten-free flour made from sweet potatoes

“Technological Properties of Orange Sweet Potato Flour Intended for Functional Food Products as Affected by Conventional Drying and Milling Methods”

ACS Food Science & Technology

Flour made from orange sweet potatoes (the powder in the bowl pictured here), could be a healthy, gluten-free option for baked goods.

Orange, starchy sweet potatoes are great mashed, cut into fries or just roasted whole. But you likely haven’t considered grinding them into a flour and baking them into your next batch of cookies or at least, not yet! Recent research published in ACS Food Science & Technology has reported the best method to turn sweet potatoes into glutenfree flours that are packed with antioxidants and perfect for thickening or baking.

Wheat flour has been used for tens of thousands of years, and likely isn’t going away anytime soon. But for those who face gluten intolerance or have celiac disease, the gluten proteins in wheat flour can lead to stomach pain, nausea and even intestinal damage. Several gluten-free options are either already available or in development, including those made from banana peels, almonds and various grains. But an up-and-coming contender is derived from sweet potatoes, as the hearty tuber is packed with antioxidants and nutrients, along with a slightly sweet flavor and hint of color.

Before it can become a common ingredient in store-bought baked goods, the best practices for processing the flour need to be established. Though previous studies have investigated a variety of parameters, including the way the potatoes are dried and milled, none have yet determined how these different steps could interact with one another to produce flours best suited for certain products. So, Ofelia Rouzaud-Sández and colleagues wanted to investigate how two drying temperatures and grinding processes affected the properties of orange sweet potato flour.

To create their flours, the team prepared samples of orange sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) dried at either 122 or 176 F then ground them once or twice. They investigated many parameters for each sample, comparing them to store-bought sweet potato

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