Effects of Harvest Age and Pre-Treatment on the Nutritional Composition of Some Released Cassava Mosaic Resistant Varieties in Ghana

Abstract

The proximate composition of three cassava varieties recently released by the Crop Research Institute of Ghana, were evaluated at different ages of harvest. The nutritive values of the flour produced from these cassava roots were studied to find out how they were affected by age, variety and pre-treatment. The pre-treatment methods used were chipping, toasting, chipping and steeping in citric acid, grating, and steeping in citric acid and toasting. Results obtained from the study showed that the nutritive values of the cassava flour were affected by age, variety and pre-treatment methods. The protein content from various factor combinations ranged from 1.30% to 3.06% while the moisture content ranged from 0.28% to 5.12% and ash content from 0.26% to1.79%. The carbohydrate content ranged from 87.57% to 93.56% while fat content ranged from 0.24% to3.17% and fiber content from 1.29% to 3.47%. The flour samples had satisfactory quality attributes in terms of protein, fat, fibre, ash, carbohydrate, and moisture content.