고구마 품질평가 현황과 전망

The sweetopotato, Ipomoea batatas L. (Lam), is one of the important summer upland crops in Korea and has been used as human food, industrial raw material and vegetable. Sweetpotato has been consumed for huamn foods such as boiled, roasted, fried or salad etc. It chould be developed for higher quality as a snak or health food, primarily through improving the eating ana marketing qualities as well as nutritional value. Its quality after cooking or processing is a complex one combining the aroma, taste, texture and fiber content. The other important qualities, for consumers are root shape, size, skin, color, flesh color, insect and disease resistance, nutritional components and safety from phytoalexins(toxic stress metabilites)etc. Korea people generally prefer to red skin color, round or elliptic shape and dry texture, yellow flesh color of sweetpotato which is high in the starch content including vitamins and nutrients. The almost factors of quality components of sweetpotato are genetically controlled by breeder, but postharvest handlings and marketing management for making high quality evaluation criteria of sweetpotato from the moment of harvest until shipping them to the market by farmers and harvest until shipping them to the market by farmers and the other users. This paper describes current status and prospects of the quality evaluations and researches in sweetpotato roots in Korea.