Sweet Potato Flour Composition for Snack Chip Texture Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional snack products made from starch-based materials, such as potato chips, lack the natural sweetness and high fiber content of sweet potatoes, resulting in products that are either rubbery or burnt when cooked, and fail to achieve the desired crispiness and uniformity preferred by consumers.
Innovation Solution
A sweet potato flour composition with specific water absorption index and viscosity levels, combined with optional ingredients, is used to create a dough that can be cooked by frying, extrusion, or baking, producing snack chips with desired texture and flavor characteristics, including high natural sugar and fiber content.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If sweet potatoes are cooked at high temperature to achieve glassy state and crispiness, then the product becomes crisp and dense, but the product burns or caramelizes with off-flavor and bitter taste
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by carefully controlling cooking temperature and time parameters to achieve the glassy state and crispiness in sweet potato snack products without causing burning or caramelization. The invention optimizes the thermal processing parameters to transform the physical state of the product while avoiding harmful chemical changes.
2Strength
If conventional starch-based materials are used to make snack products, then the product achieves crispiness, but the product lacks natural sweetness and high fiber content
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses composite materials by combining sweet potato ingredients (which provide natural sweetness and fiber) with other starch-based materials (which provide crispiness when cooked). This composite approach allows the final product to simultaneously achieve the desired texture and nutritional benefits that neither ingredient could provide alone.
3Quantity of substance
If added sugar is increased to enhance sweetness, then the product tastes sweeter, but the texture becomes rubbery and soggy when cooked
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by optimizing the sugar content within a specific range and controlling the cooking parameters (temperature and time) to prevent the rubbery and soggy texture. The invention finds the optimal balance between sugar concentration and thermal processing conditions to maintain both sweetness and desirable texture.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The sweet potato flour composition results in snack chips with improved texture, flavor, and nutritional benefits, achieving the desired crispiness and uniformity while maintaining high levels of natural sweetness and fiber, addressing the processing challenges of using sweet potatoes in snack production.
Implementation Method 1
A sweet potato flour composition with specific water absorption index and viscosity levels
Implementation Method 2
The dough can be cooked by frying, extrusion, or baking, producing snack chips with desired texture and flavor characteristics
Data Source
AI summary
A sweet potato snack chip which is made by cooking dough that contains a sweet potato flour composition that includes sweet potato powder, sweet potato flakes and mixtures of these. The sweet potato snack chip has a chip density of from about 0.6 g/ml to about 2.0 g/ml, and a chip fracture strength of from about 400 gf to about 900 gf. The preferred dough formed from the sweet potato flour composition is sheetable and cohesive. Fabricated snacks made from this dough have desirable taste and texture characteristics.