Cassava starch production and use

In Africa and Latin America, cassava is mainly used for food and feed, and there are dozens of cassava foods in Brazil. In China and Thailand, cassava is mainly used to process dry flakes, granules, starch and its deep processed products.

The main products of cassava entering the international market are dry chips and starch. In recent years, the world's imports of cassava chips and cassava starch are about 6 million tons, of which the EU imports about 3.5 million tons, Japan imports about 1.2 million tons, South Korea imports about 600,000 tons, and China imports about 300,000 tons. Thailand is a major exporter of cassava chips and starch. In recent years, its export volume is about 4.8 million tons, accounting for 80% of the world's total exports. In this condition, cassava starch production and use has undoubtedly become an important topic.

Cassava starch use:

Cassava starch is obtained from the roots of the cassava plant, which is found in equatorial regions between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The name cassava is generally applied to the roots of the plant, whereas cassava is the name given to starch and other processed products. The large central pith of the cassava roots is the starch-reserve flesh and can range in starch content from as low as 15% to as high as 33%. The machinery of cassava starch production and use is highly varied. There are well-equipped factories that utilize local, custom-built devices for processing roots, product streams, by-products and effluent. Cassava starch is differentiated from other starches by its low level of residual materials, lower amylose content than for other amylose-containing starches, and high molecular weights of amylose and amylopectin. Starch modifications can be classified as physical modifications, chemical modifications, and genetic modifications. The greatest diversity of use of cassava starch is in the food industry. As an ingredient in foods, native and modified cassava starch has been widely utilized. Other food applications generally make use of cassava starch as a thickener and stabilizer, with special emphasis on its lack of flavor contribution to food systems, allowing full and immediate detection of the flavor of the food itself. Cassava starch consumption in industrial applications has been more related to economics than to any unique functionality. Paper manufacturing industry and textile industry are significant users of starch. So it is necessary to know about cassava starch production and use.

It will take cassava starch production and use in Nigeria as an example. There is high demand for cassava starch in Nigeria. It is widely used in industries such as: textile, pharmaceuticals, oil drilling, paper and packaging, gum and adhesives, chemical and household products manufacturing, battery, drinks and beverages, foods and so on. The desire to conserve foreign exchange and reduce import dependency is the driving force for demand for cassava starch especially as regards its partial substitution for corn starch in user industries. The demand for cassava starch in Nigeria is in excess of 350,000 tons per annum. The current domestic production capacity to meet the estimated demand for cassava starch is less than 20 per cent.

Cassava starch production:

As cassava starch is becoming more and more popular, many people want to know cassava starch production and use. Cassava starch production machines made by SIDA company are highly automatic and high-efficient. Cassava starch production mainly includes cassava cleaning and washing, cassava cutting, cassava crushing, cassava starch extraction and cassava starch dewatering, cassava starch drying, cassava starch sieving and packing. And the fresh cassava will be transported to dry sieve and and paddle washing machine to remove some dirt and surface impurities of the cassava, and then cassava will cut into pieces by cutting machine. Cassava pieces will be crushed by rasper. Then cassava slurry will go through centrifuge sieve and fine fiber sieve and disc separator in order to extract cassava starch. After that cassava starch will be dehydrated by peeler centrifuge. Then cassava starch will be dried by flash dryer, and then packed by packing machine.