Provitamin A Carotenoïd Content of Dried Fermented Cassava Flour: The Effect of Palm Oil Addition During Processing

Vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem in developing countries. Cassava is a major staple food for most Africans. Most often, it is processed into dried fermented cassava (commonly called gari) to limit post harvest losses. The white or yellow type of gari can be obtained without or with the addition of red palm oil respectively. However in most African countries, the process is still traditional and the quantity of red palm oil varies from one producer to another. This study aimed to standardize the processing of cassava into gari and determine the carotenoïd content of dried fermented cassava roots cooked with different quantities of red palm oil. Grated samples from 210g of cassava tubers were fermented and fried at 120°C ± 5 for 10 minutes with (yellow gari) and without whole red palm oil (white gari). The quantities of red palm oil used were 2, 3, 4, 5 and 8 ml. The alpha and beta carotene contents of gari (experimental samples) and of yellow gari bought from a local market (commercial samples) were evaluated by HPLC. The organoleptic properties of the gari were assessed using 18 volunteers aged between 20 to 30 years accustomed to gari. From the results, the provitamin A carotenoïd content of gari obtained increased significantly (P< 0.05) with the quantity of oil used and were higher than that of the commercial samples. The alpha carotene ranged from 352.6 ± 5.5 µg/g to 1572.5 ± 15.9 µg/g (for 2 and 8 ml of palm oil respectively) and the beta carotene from 309.7 ± 24.8 µg/g to 1624.3 ± 45.8 µg/g (for 2 and 8 ml of oil respectively). These results suggest that the addition of red palm oil (4 ml/210 g of cassava) during the processing of cassava into yellow gari resulted in good retention of carotenoïd. Gari is a dry product, thus if it is well conserved after processing in dark airtight packages, it could be used as a good tool to reduce vitamin A deficiency.