Hydration Kinetics of Cassava Chips

Abstract

Cassava roots from NR8083 were chipped into circular, semi-circular (5.0 mm thick and diameter of 40 mm), rectangular (5.0 mm x 10 x 63.5 mm) and cube (5 x 5 x 5 mm) shapes and sun-dried on a flat palm frond basket (1.037 m x 0.33 m), placed on 1.0 m height respectively at a loading rate of 7 kg/m2. The drying characteristics of these samples were evaluated, while the hydration kinetics of the chips was studied using Peleg’s model. The circular shaped chips lost moisture faster than others. This was followed by the semi-circular shaped samples, while the rectangular shaped samples lost the least at any time. The result also shows that the circular shaped chips absorbed the highest quantity of water, while the cube shaped ones absorbed the least. The estimated parameters of linear regression analysis show high coefficient of determination (r2 = 0.760-0.865) indicating that Peleg’s model adequately described the rate of water uptake of the different shapes of cassava chips at room temperature. A significant (p<0.05) linear relationship was found to exist between the soaking time and water uptake. For production of dried cassava chips, the fresh cassava should be sliced in circular form so as to reduce drying and hydration time.