Sweetpotato Cooking Quality Consultant

I. Background
RTB Breeding for Quality is a part of the broader RTB breeding project that comprises activities aimed at integrating processing and eating quality of boiled sweetpotato in routine breeding, continuing the progress RTBfoods project (2018 - 2023) achieved. For sweetpotato, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA), instrumental texture analysis and draft consumer acceptability / rejection thresholds were among the main outputs. Under RTB Breeding for Quality, the application of these tools in routine breeding should be implemented to demonstrate their contribution to making breeding selections.

II. Objective

• To extract sweetpotato genotypes with superior quality traits from breeding populations using SOPs developed in the RTBfoods project (routine quality analysis of sweetpotato harvests)
  
• To evaluate thresholds of acceptability / rejection of selected essential quality traits for boiled sweetpotato in Uganda
  III. Deliverables
  
  • Develop consumer test questionnaire and present it to interdisciplinary team for review - product = final version of questionnaire
    
  • Retool trained sensory panel - final activity report
    
  • Train enumerators who will administer consumer tests - workshop report
    
  • Organise and conduct consumer tests and participatory processing quality tests in urban and rural location with selected panel of genotypes grown in Namulonge - field activity report
    
  • Conduct quality tests on samples used in consumer tests including descriptive sensory analysis- curate, collate, organize all quality data and draft report including results from consumer tests and participatory processing quality and develop models to validate cooking quality thresholds
    
  • Routine quality analysis of sweetpotato harvests - cooking quality report on genotypes from 2023B and 2024A harvests
    IV. Time frame
    
    • Consultancy contract will be for 131 days.
      
      

      Requirements Selection Criteria
      

      • BSc Food Science
        
      • Consumer-led food product development, food analysis
        
      • Sensory analysis, experimental design, surveys, data management, data analysis, report writing
        
      • At least 3 years experience
        
      • Conducting field surveys, statistical data analysis and interpretation, communication skills, interpersonal and leadership skills
        
      • Experience with potato and sweetpotato value chains is an added advantage