Enzyme-Assisted Mechanical Peeling of Cassava Tubers

Ziba Barati,Joachim Müller,Sebastian Romuli,Sajid Latif

doi:10.3390/catal10010066

Abstract

In this study, the effect of enzymatic pre-treatment and the size of cassava tubers on mechanical peeling was examined. Cassava tubers were sorted based on their mass as small, medium and large. Viscozyme® L and an abrasive cassava peeling machine was used for the enzymatic pre-treatment and the mechanical peeling, respectively. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to investigate the effect of the enzyme dose (0.5–1.9 mL g−1), incubation time (1.5–6 h), peeling time (1.5–4.5 min) and size of the tubers (small, medium and large) on the peeling process. Peeled surface area (PSA) and peel loss (PL) were measured as main responses in RSM. Results showed that the PSA and PL were significantly (p < 0.05) influenced by the enzyme dose, incubation time and peeling time. The size of tubers only had a significant impact on the PSA. The optimum operating conditions for different sizes of tubers were found and validated. Under optimum conditions, the PSA of the large tubers (89.52%) was significantly higher than the PSA of the medium and small tubers (p < 0.05). Application of enzymatic pre-treatment can improve the mechanical peeling process especially for larger cassava tubers.

Highlights

Cassava is one of the most important crops in the world and is mostly consumed as food, feed and is used as industrial raw material [1,2]
peel loss (PL) of cassava tubers treated with enzyme solution were higher than those of cassava tubers treated with blank solution and control
In preparatory experiments, the efficiency of the enzyme was investigated on tubers without applying incisions on their surface, resulting in a Peeled surface area (PSA) of 24.1 ± 0.04% and PL of 3.6 ± 0.6%

Summary

Introduction

Cassava is one of the most important crops in the world and is mostly consumed as food, feed and is used as industrial raw material [1,2]. It is a resilient crop, which can grow under poor conditions such as drought and low nutrient content [3] and provides a staple food for around one billion people [1]. Due to the climate change, the importance of resilient crops such as cassava to secure the food supply has gained more attention [4,5]. Because manual peeling is labor intensive [9], it is essential to mechanize the enzymatic cassava peeling process

Objectives

Results

Conclusion