Cooking practice and safety assessment of boiled cassava root sold in streets of Gashua, Yobe state Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the cooking practice and safety assessment of boiled cassava roots sold in streets of Gashua, Yobe state Nigeria. The result showed that majority (95.29 %) of sellers washed raw cassava roots and boiled (35 – 50 minutes) with portable water. There are significant differences (p < 0.05) in proximate composition of boiled cassava roots with values ranged from 60.10 – 63.01 %, 1.00 – 1.10 %, 0.60 – 0.64 %, 0.54 – 0.56 %, 1.13 – 1.40 % and 33.70 – 36.47 % for moisture, ash, crude protein, crude fat, crude fibre and carbohydrate content respectively. The anti-nutritional compounds of boiled cassava root ranged from 0.01 – 0.03 mg/100 g, 0.02 – 0.05 mg/100 g, 0.01 – 0.03 mg/100 g, 0.02 – 0.04 mg/100 g, and 0.01 – 0.04 mg/100 g for tannin, phytate, hydrogen cyanide, oxalate and saponnin content respectively while microbial count ranged from 1.00 – 1.95 logCFU/g, 1.30 – 2.11 logCFU/g and 2.04 – 2.08 logCFU/g for fungal count, total viable count and coliform count respectively. The study showed that boiled cassava roots were being processed under good hygienic conditions and the quantities of anti-nutritional properties and microbial loads of control sample and street vended boiled cassava roots were lower than the permitted quantity for safety of human consumption recommended by regulatory bodies.