Consumer Acceptance and Purchase Intent of a Sweetpotato Beverage

Sweetpotato, (Ipomoea batatas) is a cost-effective root crop that has been selected by the U. S. National Aeronautics and Space Mission as a candidate crop to be grown on space missions. The objectives of the study were (i) to determine consumer acceptance of a newly developed sweetpotato beverage; and (ii) to evaluate consumers' intent to purchase the sweetpotato beverage. Untrained judges (N=65) used a 9-point hedonic scale to provide ratings for color, aroma, sweetness, aftertaste and overall liking of the sweetpotato beverage (SWPB). There were no significant differences (P<0.05) in judges' preference for the different attributes (color, aroma, sweetness, aftertaste and overall liking) of the SWPB. The SWPB received mean scores ranging between 6.9±1.8 to 7.9±1.3 and 6.8±1.7 to 7.7±1.2 by female and male untrained judges, respectively. These scores indicated that the SWPB was “liked moderately” by the judges. There were no significant differences (p<0.05) in the L*, a*, and b* color values among the SWPB samples. The mean scores for intent to purchase were evaluated using a 5-point category scale (5 “definitely would buy” to 1 “definitely would not buy”). Most participants indicated that they “maybe would” buy the SWPB. The mean scores for the three SWPB ranged from 4.0±0.9 to 4.2±0.8.