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Fermentation Atlas

Roots and tubers from Côte d'Ivoire

Attiékéattiéké

Fresh cassava is grated with about a tenth of its weight of magnan, a sour starter made from cooked cassava kept in a used jute bag, and left overnight to sour. The pulp is pressed, rubbed into granules, dried and steamed into soft, separate grains like couscous. Made in 7 steps over 6.5 days – 6.6 days. The longest step, make the magnan, takes 3 days (Nimaga D 2012). Leuconostoc mesenteroides and At the end: Lactobacillus salivarius 20 %, L. delbrueckii 16 %, L. fermentum 12 %, L. confusus 10 % of lactic bacteria do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3 daysReported[nimaga2012]Make the magnan
AciditypH 4.4–4.6Measured[coulin2006][kouame2020]Steam
Fully documentedRoots and tubers6.5 days – 6.6 daysMore roots and tubersMore from BeninMore from Togo

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceTraditional process with no fixed batch size. Producers inoculate the grated pulp with about 10 % magnan; the amounts above describe that ratio, not a weighed recipe.
Fresh cassava roots · Peeled, cut, washed and grated[nimaga2012]
About 10 % of the pulpMagnan (traditional inoculum) · Cooked cassava roots kept three days in an unwashed jute bag used for earlier magnan[coulin2006][nimaga2012]
A littlePalm oil · Added at grating in the trial recipe[nimaga2012]
Starterback-slop: magnan, a traditional cassava inoculum

Total time across the recorded steps: 6.5 days – 6.6 days

Start
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AlcoholAcetic acidpH 5shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteriaYeasts

What changes: Cooked cassava sours for three days in an old jute bag and becomes the magnan starter

Step 1 of 7
Make the magnan
Time
3 days
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 5
Measured
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts
Bacillus cereus
L. mesenteroides
Lactobacillus salivarius

Magnan held aerobic mesophiles at about 8.2 × 10^7 cfu/g, with lactic acid 0.2 % and acetic acid 0.1 %. Output: magnan (starter).

Flavour
sour
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

the old bag seeds the cooked roots with lactic bacteria and yeasts

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Attiéké is one of the few cassava ferments started on purpose, with magnan, so it sours in about 12 to 15 hours. Gari sours on its own for days and is roasted dry, while attiéké is steamed and stays soft and moist.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Attiéké garbaStreet dish of attiéké with fried tuna (a way of serving it).
  • Ebrié attiékéThe sourest and most acid type; its magnan is led by L. plantarum, with Weissella cibaria found only in this group.
  • Adjoukrou and Alladjan attiékéSimilar to each other; Adjoukrou magnan is led by Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Pediococcus acidilactici, Alladjan magnan by L. fermentum.

Safety

Fermentation, pressing and steaming cut hydrocyanic acid from 116 mg/kg in the roots to 3.4 mg/kg in attiéké in one study, below the 10 mg/kg Codex level the authors cite. Steaming kills most microbes but not Bacillus cereus spores, and microbes return at packaging. Eat it within a few days; quality failed after three days at room temperature.

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus spores survive steaming (about 10^2 cfu/g); counts of 10^5 cfu/g or more in street attiéké garba; Staphylococcus aureus in intermediate products, reduced during fermentation and pressing; Enterobacter sakazakii (Cronobacter) and Klebsiella pneumoniae carried in with the magnan.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

  1. [coulin2006] Coulin P., Farah Z., Assanvo J., Spillmann H., Puhan Z. 2006, Characterisation of the microflora of attiéké, a fermented cassava product, during traditional small-scale preparation, Int J Food Microbiol 106:131–136, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2005.06.012paper
  2. [djeni2011] Djeni N.T., N'Guessan K.F., Toka D.M., Kouame K.A., Dje K.M. 2011, Quality of attieke (a fermented cassava product) from the three main processing zones in Côte d'Ivoire, Food Res Int 44:410–416, doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2010.09.032paper
  3. [djeni2015] Djeni T.N., Bouatenin J.-P.K.M., Assohoun N.M.C. et al. 2015, Biochemical and microbial characterization of cassava inocula from the three main attieke production zones in Côte d'Ivoire, Food Control 50:133–140, doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2014.08.046paper
  4. [nimaga2012] Nimaga D., Tetchi F.A., Kakou C.A., Nindjin C., Amani N.G. 2012, Influence of traditional inoculum and fermentation time on the organoleptic quality of "attiéké", Food Nutr Sci 3(10), doi:10.4236/fns.2012.310176paper
  5. [kouame2020] Kouamé A.K., Bouatenin M.J.K., Djéni T.N., Dje K.M. 2020, Identification of hazards and critical control points during attiéké (a fermented cassava product) process in Côte d'Ivoire, Lett Appl Microbiol 70:87–94, doi:10.1111/lam.13247paper
  6. [kouassi2022] Kouassi K.A., Attien Y.P., Assohoun-Djeni N.M.C. et al. 2022, Evaluation of the contamination by bacteria of the Bacillus cereus group and some physico-chemical parameters of attiéké garba sold in Daloa, Côte d'Ivoire, J Food Sci Technol 59:397–401, doi:10.1007/s13197-021-05026-3paper