Dimakan Sayang: Turning the Common into the Exclusive, Cassava Bread (Embal) in The Kei Islands, Southeast Maluku, Indonesia

This article traces changes in everyday narratives considering cassava bread (embal) in the Kei Islands. Various methods of data collection (participant observation, focused group discussion, and survey) were used, and applied purposively to produce critical narratives on the transformation of local food patterns. These data were collected over a short fieldwork period in 2016 from the villages of Wain, Rumaat, and Langgur in the Kei Islands, Southeast Maluku. As this traditional staple food is being replaced by rice, Kei people are creatively adjusting both their attitudes and appetites towards embal. Both conceptual (noetic)shifts and sensory (taste) shifts are apparent. The typical taste or flavor of embal is increasingly celebrated and regarded as a special blessing. Yet, at the same time, many young Kei are now preferring to eat imported rice more than embal. They are losing their appetite for consuming embal as a daily common food, even as they increasingly adore and celebrate it as a luxurious meal. This suggests that the villagers have become bigger consumers of imported food (rice and noodles) than their city-based counterparts. As such, embal consumers (the local food’s contributors to sovereignty) in the market will continuously be under pressure, diminishing in numbers, in accordance with the rise of its exclusive image. Such is the irony for cassava as food sovereignty in the Kei Islands.

Investigation on Microbiological, Organoleptic and Shelf Life Characteristics of Wheat-cassava Bread

Aim: Microbiology, sensory and shelf life evaluation of wheat-cassava bread from raw materials to finished products. Study Design: Completely randomized design with two replications and average values calculated for mean comparison. Place and Duration of Study: Food/Industrial Laboratory, Department of Microbiology, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria and Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Niger Delta University, Nigeria, from June 2018 to March, 2019. Methodology: Microbiological, proximate, physicochemical, sensory and shelf-life characteristics of wheat-cassava bread produced using different formulations (90:10; 80:20; 70:30; 60:40) and control 100% wheat-bread were investigated during storage at 32±2°C, using standard methods. Bread were baked at 180°C and 200°C. Two independent determinations were analyzed using ANOVA and significance of the mean differences determined at P=.05. Results: Mean total heterotrophic counts (THC) of raw flour samples increased from 5.41 to 7.62 log10 cfu g-1; total coliform from, 1.08 to 1.90 log10 cfu g-1; and total fungal counts from 2.46 to 4.88 log10 cfu g-1 with increasing cassava flour substitution. Mean values for THC and total fungal counts of baked bread samples increased from 1.88 to 7.73 log10 cfu g-1 and 0.48 to 4.05 log10 cfu g-1 respectively from day 0 to day 6. However, coliforms were not detected in baked bread. The predominantly isolated bacteria were: Bacillus, Aerococcus and Staphylococcus while fungi were: Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium. Proximate composition showed that carbohydrate and ash contents increased from 46.07 to 55.29% and 1.35 to 3.79% respectively while crude protein and moisture contents decreased from 14.01 to 8.08% and 29.0 to 23.8% respectively and pH from 6.59 to 6.14 with increasing cassava flour substitution. Conclusion: The overall acceptability of the wheat/cassava bread reduced with increasing cassava flour concentration, however, there was no significant difference (P=.05) in the overall acceptability of the 100% wheat bread and that of 90:10% till day four.