Assessment of cyanide content and nutritional composition of odourless fufu flour produced using different processing techniques

The quality of fufu flours has been identified to vary from one location to another and thismay be as a result of the technique adopted for processing. This study was carried out todetermine the effect of different processing methods on the cyanide content, nutritionalcomposition, pasting and functional properties of odourless fufu flour samples -PMIMD(Processing method involves multi-crop drying procedure) and PMISF (Processingmethod involves stirred frying procedure) which were fermented before drying or fryingand compared with the baseline sample, that was sundried. The results showed that thecyanide content ranged from 0.25 to 0.41 mg/100 g, with PMIMD having the lowestcyanide content of 0.254±0.02 mg/100 g, followed by PMISF 0.41±0.03 mg/100 g, whichsignificantly reduced (P<0.05) when compared to the baseline flour. The moisture contentranged from 4.34 to 8.21%, with PMIMD having the lowest moisture content (4.34%),followed by PMISF (7.21%). PMIMD had the highest carbohydrate content. Crude fibrecontent was 3.12% (PMIMD), 3.34% (PMISF) and 3.38% (Baseline). PMISF had a betterpasting temperature (78.15oC), while the final viscosity was highest in PMIMD (3797 cP).From the study, it can be concluded that the processed flours had a reduced cyanidecontent which therefore makes it safe for consumption, and its level of moisture contentwould greatly be beneficial for an increased shelf-life. Generally, the processed odourlessfufu flours possessed good pasting and functional properties