THE EFFECT OF SOME PROCESSING METHODS ON THE VITAMIN C CONTENT OF SWEET AND IRISH POTATO

The effect of some processing methods on the Vitamin C content of sweet and Irish potatoes were investigated. Processing methods employed were, cooking, frying and baking. Raw sweet and Irish potatoes contained 160mg/100g and 79.3mg/100g of Vitamin C respectively. The highest loss of 114mg/100g (71.25%) was observed when sweet potato was cooked followed by frying 99.1mg/100g (61.93%) while baking produced a loss of 82.50mg/100g (51.50%). The trend of loss of Vitamin C in Irish potato was the same with sweet potato. Cooked Irish potato lost 50.30mg/100g (63.43%), fried, 43.30mg/100g (54.60%) and baked, 41.30mg/100g (52.08%). Thus, different processing methods resulted in appreciable loss of Vitamin C with the highest loss observed when the potatoes were boiled and the least loss when they were baked.