Physico-Chemical Characteristics and Storage Stability of Breadfruit and Cassava Co-Fermented into Gari Analogue

Abstract

This study concentrated majorly on producing a functional food; gari analogue from co-fermented breadfruit and cassava. A portion of both mature cassava tubers and matured but unripe breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) was co-fermented (100:0, 0:100, 80:20, 70:30, and 60:40 Cassava: Breadfruit) to obtain gari analogue. The physico-chemical characteristics (pH, titratble acidity and cyanide content) of the fermenting mash were examined daily till the end of the fermentation days, also on the final gari analogue after production. The final gari analogue were stored in a plastic covered containers for six weeks during which pH, titratable acidity and cyanide evaluation were conducted weekly to determine if there could be any appreciable changes in acidity and taste of gari analogue samples. The pH of the samples decreased with increase in process time of the fermenting mash, breadfruits samples had lower pH than those cassava samples. Titratable acidity increased with increase in fermenting days as all samples had higher acid content at the end of fermentation period comparable with the initial acid content while the co-fermented gari samples had lower cyanogenic glycosides than 100% cassava gari. This study established that co-fermentation of breadfruit and cassava into analogue reduced the cyanogenic glycosides of gari with increase in titratable acidity (TTA) and decrease in pH values which in turn played a major role in altering the taste of the final gari analogue and its storage stability.