Sensory quality and physicochemical properties of cassava roots as a function of technological management levels and harvest times

Bruna Lago Tagliapietra,André Da Rosa Ulguim,Neila Silvia Pereira Dos Santos Richards,Nereu Augusto Streck,Alencar Junior Zanon,Alexandre Ferigolo Alves

doi:10.33448/rsd-v10i10.18849

Abstract

The management practices used by farmers in cassava crops and the relationship with the sensory quality and physicochemical characteristics of cassava roots are still incipient. The objective of this work was to evaluate the productivity, sensory quality and physicochemical properties of cassava roots at harvest times and technological management levels. The study was conducted in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and the management practices employed in the field experiment corresponded to low, medium and high technological levels used by farmers in southern Brazil. The cultivar “Vassourinha” was used and the roots were harvested in the sixth, the seventh, and the eighth month after planting. The productivity, the physicochemical composition of the roots (dry matter, protein, lipid, ash, total fiber, resistant starch, and total starch) were determined, and the sensory analysis of the roots was performed. Technological levels did not influence the root productivity and it increased with the delay in the harvest season. There was an increase in protein at the high technological level and the highest content of starch was found in the roots harvested in the seventh month. Sensory acceptance of the roots showed greater acceptability in the sixth and seventh months after planting, with roots of a high technological level being preferred. Based on the results, the influence of management practices in the nutritional composition of the roots represents an important aspect for assessing the potential of the roots to be consumed or used in industrial processes.

Highlights

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), originally from South America, is widely grown in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, is considered the third most important source of energy in the diet of developing countries, after corn and rice, feeding around 800 million people worldwide (FAO, 2013; Zhu, 2015)
Root productivity increased with the delay in harvesting, whose average values of technological levels ranged from 16.6 Mg ha-1 when harvested at six months, to 35.7 Mg ha-1 when harvested in the eighth month after planting (Table 1)
The roots harvested at months six and seven differed significantly among the technological levels. For both months the high technological level was preferred to the others, confirming the results found in the sensory acceptance analysis (Table 4)

Summary

Introduction

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), originally from South America, is widely grown in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, is considered the third most important source of energy in the diet of developing countries, after corn and rice, feeding around 800 million people worldwide (FAO, 2013; Zhu, 2015). Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava, with 56.0 million tons, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo, which produced 33.8 million tons, and Brazil, occupies a prominent position in the world scenario of cassava production, being the fifth largest producer, with 21.5 million tons in the last five years (FAO, 2019). Due to the flexibility of adapting the plant to various climatic conditions and good agronomic performance (Tironi et al, 2015; Gomes et al, 2020), most cassava producers consider that the crop requires little investment in management practices, which results in low productivity. The average productivity in Brazil in the last five years was 14.70 Mg ha-1 of roots (IBGE, 2019), a value significantly below its productive potential, which can reach 75 to 90.0 Mg ha-1 (Cock et al, 1979; Fermont et al, 2009)

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Conclusion