Effect of Cutting Styles on Quality and Antioxidant Activity of Stored Fresh-Cut Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) Cultivars

The effect of cutting styles (slice, pie, and shred) on the quality characteristics and antioxidant activity of purple and yellow flesh sweet potato cultivars during six days of storage at 4 °C was investigated. The results indicated that the sliced and pie samples showed no significant difference (p > 0.05) on the firmness, weight loss, and vitamin C content compared with the whole sweet potato in both cultivars during storage. The pie sample exhibited the highest wound-induced phenolic, flavonoid, and carotenoid accumulation and DPPH radical scavenging activity among the cuts in both cultivars. Moreover, the shredded sample showed significantly (p < 0.05) higher polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity but lower total phenolic and flavonoid content and the lowest antioxidant activity among the samples. Thus, the finding of this study revealed that pie-cut processing has potential in improving the quality and increasing the antioxidant activity of fresh-cut purple and yellow flesh sweet potato cultivars while shredding accelerated the quality deterioration of both sweet potato cultivars.