There have been few studies on factors affecting yam tuber quality. Tuber quality can be approached from several points of view: nutritional value, changes in organoleptic and physico-chemical characteristics during storage and food preparation or the differing responses of the various yam cultivars to these factors. This paper reviews the literature on these aspects of yam quality and reports on work carried out in Guadeloupe to characterize the response of different yam species to storage and cooking. The studies bring out the differing behaviour among and within Dioscorea species and the need to take into account post-harvest behaviour when selecting cultivars for a particular food or processing use.