Effect of storage on some chemical properties of packaged yam and cassava flour blends

Abstract

Some chemical properties of stored yam-cassava flour blends were studied.Yam flour (YF) and cassava flour (CF) weremixed at different proportions and packaged using High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and Polypropylene sack (PP). The samples were subjected to chemical analyses (moisture, starch, amylose and sugar contents) at initial and 4 weeks interval. Results showed that there were significant (p<0.05) increase in themoisture content and decrease in starch, amylose and sugar contents of packaged samples during the 24 weeks of storage compared to the initial values obtained at 0week.The chemical composition of all the samples packaged in HDPE for 24 weeks were within the recommended range for yam and cassava flours. A blend of yam-cassava flour (80%YF: 20%CF ) packaged in HDPE sack had the lowest moisture (12.37% ) and highest starch (55.22%), amylose (19.01%) and sugar (4.10%) contents after 24 weeks of storage.