ABSTRACT

The cassava is a major root crop in many tropical and subtropical countries, including Latin America, Asia and especially West Africa. Cassava is variously named as manioc, mandioca, tapioca, or yucca and referred as a cyanogenic food crop. This chapter highlights the implications of microorganisms for fermentation of cassava and linamarase activity in detoxification of cyanogenic glucosides. Fermentation aided linamarase is essential for improving the product quality as well as to provide safety, especially by reduction of toxic cyanogenic glycosides in cassava food products. The fermented foods from cassava are lafun, fufu, agbelima, chickwanghe, attiek, kivunde and gari in Africa, tape in Asia, and cheese bread and coated peanut in Latin America. Cassava starch is a valued raw material for producing many kinds of modified stanches. Cassava peels, which are mostly generated as waste during the processing of cassava, have been employed as an important source of carbohydrate in livestock feeds.