PHYSICO-CYANIDE EVALUATION OF GARI FROM UGHELLI, BIDA AND OBA AKOKO

Abstract

Cassava is a stable food crip in Nigeria, Brazil and some other African countries. It is usually processed into fermented products such as Gari , Lafun,Tapical, kokonte and acheke. Gariis a particular popular food product because it comes in ready to eat form. There are processes for converting dried cassava into Gari and other products, usually derived from fresh cassava and have to be simple and affordable. This paper presented the physic-cyanide evaluation of Gari from Ughelli, Bida and Oba Akoko. For the physical properties, Ughelli Gari sample has the highest swelling capacity of 156cm3, followed by Oba Akoko’s Gari with a swelling capacity of 146cm3. Bida Gari has the least swelling capacity with a swelling capacity of 111cm3, this low swelling capacity may not be unconnected with reduced starch content. Similarly, Ughelli Gari has the highest starch content of 95%, followed by Oba Akoko Gari with 90% starch content. But Bida Gari has the leaset value of 75% among the three Gari locations. Also Bida Gari has the highest value of fibre content and it gave 25% fibre content, this was followed by Oba Akoko with fibre content of 10% and the least was Ughelli with 5% fibre content this may likely be connected with proper grating of the cassava tubers, sieving and over maturity of the tubers. The overall acceptability showed that 19 people out of 20 prefer both Ughelli and Oba Akoko Gari while only 12people out of 20 prefer Bida Gari. However, the Gari samples have a pH range from 4.92-5.06 and the total titriable acidity was between 0.816%-0.960%. Bida has the highest pH of 4.9. There is connectivity between pH and titriable aciity as observed in the result. The lower the pH, the lower the titriable acidity. And Ughelli Gari samples has the value of pH of 5.06, the lowest titriable acidity of 0.816% Hydrocyanide acid (HCN) which is a measure of Cryogenic glycoside (Cyanide content) in all samples their HCNmg/100g were higher than the recommended value of 2.0HCNmg/100g by standard organization of Nigeria. Ughelli has the least HCN content of 2.376HCNmg/100g which implies lowest cyanide content this was followed by Oba Akoko Gari with 2.8080mg/100g, while Bida has the highest Hydrocyanide content of 3.024mgHCN/100g. However, according to Akinrele that 3.0mgHCN/100g it implied for consumption only Ughelli and Oba Akoko Gari can be said to be safe consumable while Bida Gari may be said not suitable foe eating. Nevertheless, since the three samples HCNmg/100g were above the recommended 2.0HCNmg/100g value by SON (Standard Organization of Nigeria), it showed that all the Gari samples from the thress locations neded a process technology that will reduce the Hydrocyanide content (Cyanide)