ABSTRACT
No effective or generally applicable storage technology exists to prevent the fast post-harvest deterioration of cassava roots. So they must be processed soon after harvest. When intended for feedstuffs, non-traditional food industries, or export, the roots need to be processed into chips to facilitate conversion into a dried product with a better keeping quality. This paper describes the design of a chipping machine and some drying experiments on the chips. The results showed that although all drying occurred in the falling-rate period, sun-drying of machine-produced chips was fast and at a rate that remained nearly constant until a moisture content of about 20 percent (wet basis). For some hand-prepared 2.5 × 5 × 50 mm chips tested, drying was much slower with more pronounced variable-rate drying characteristics.
