Abstract:
Manihot esculenta (cassava) root is starchy root vegetable or tuber which is mostly found in
South America. It is a major source of calories and carbs for people in developing countries.
Root part is the most common consumed part of cassava and can be eaten as whole, grated or
ground into flour to make bread and crackers. Bangladesh is an agricultural country but cassava
is not an abundant consuming product in the country. It is available in some specific area of
Bangladesh like sylhet, Modhupur, Rangamati etc. Due to the increasing demand of cassava
root as ingredient of bakery products, confectioneries, canned products, glucose industry,
commercial caramel, dextrose production, composite flours and cassava alcohols, it is
becoming one of the best thing which can be taken into consideration in Bangladesh. Present
study aimed to assess chips prepared from locally grown fresh cassava roots by blanching and
non-blanching techniques followed by two drying techniques such as solar drying and oven
drying. Four samples were obtained as blanched- oven drying, non-blanched- oven drying,
blanched- solar drying and non-blanched- oven drying which were analyzed further to estimate
moisture, ash, protein and fat content. Sample of non- blanched-solar drying analyzed as fat9.6%, ash- 1.43%, moisture- 1.68% and protein- 21%. Non-blanched-oven drying sample
showed fat- 9.82%, ash- 1.68%, moisture- 1.128% and protein- 31.5%. Blanched- oven drying
sample analyzed as fat- 10.6%, ash- 1.55%, moisture- 1.87% and protein- 29.75%. Blanchedsolar drying contained fat- 9.2%, ash- 0.66%, moisture- 2.89% and protein- 24.5%. Sample
obtained from solar drying contained high moisture content than sample obtained from oven
drying whereas blanched sample had low moisture content than non-blanched sample. Ash
content in non-blanched sample were lower than blanched sample but ash content of sample
obtained from solar drying was less than that of oven drying. Samples did not show notable
variation in their protein and fat content.
