Provitamin A Carotenoids in Baked Foods From Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato Flour Are Substantially Bioaccessible and Contribute to Vitamin A Requirements

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) remains a public health problem in developing countries. Consumption of orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) varieties has been proven to be a valuable strategy for VAD alleviation. In this work, OFSP flour was incorporated into wheat flour at 15, 25, 35, and 50% (w/w) and used to prepare baked products. The bioaccessibility of provitamin A carotenoids of OFSP baking products was performed according to an in vitro digestion model. The contribution of OFSP-wheat composite baking products to vitamin A requirements was evaluated. Relatively high amounts (98.70±2.17-144.42±1.31 μg/g DM) of total carotenoids in OFSP flours was reported in Kakamega-7-Irene, Kabode, and Covington cultivars. The recovery of provitamin A carotenoid in baking products containing 15, 25, 35, and 50% OFSP flour was 1031.04±6.36-3364.21±10.22 μg/100 g for cupcakes and 1009.19±10.38-4640.72±13.43 μg/100 g for cookies, respectively. The in vitro bioaccessibility of provitamin A carotenoids of OFSP composite cupcake ranged from 12.53 to 27.21% while that of OFSP composite cookies was significantly different (p ˂ 0.05) and ranged from 15.99 to 27.84%. The results also showed that cupcake and cookies containing 35% and 50% OFSP flours could be used to fight vitamin A deficiency in Côte d’Ivoire as they were found to meet 50 and more than 100% (161% for 100 g portion) of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of vitamin A for children aged 3-10 years. Finally, our results may support adoption of OFSP varieties in order to decrease the risk of vitamin A deficiency in Côte d’Ivoire.