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Fermentation Atlas

Roots and tubers from Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Liberia

Gari (garri)gari

Peeled cassava is grated, packed into bags and left under a press for a few days, while lactic bacteria sour the mash and the root's own enzyme breaks down its cyanide-forming sugars. The pressed cake is sieved and stirred on a hot pan into dry, crisp granules. Made in 8 steps over 3 days – 3.1 days. The longest step, ferment in bags under a press, takes 3 days (Escobar A 2021) and runs at 25–35 °C (Escobar A 2021). Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Weissella confusa and Lactococcus garvieae do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3 daysMeasured[escobar2021]Ferment in bags under a press
Temperature25–35 °CMeasured[escobar2021]Ferment in bags under a press
AciditypH 5Measured[awoyale2022]Cool, grade and store dry

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedTraditional process with no fixed batch size. The roots are the whole recipe; the one Benin study used here roasted the sieved pulp 3 kg at a time.
Fresh cassava roots · Peeled and washed, then grated[codex-gari][escobar2021]
No salt and no starter in most methods · Bacteria come from the roots and the bags; some makers add a little old fermented mash[escobar2021][awoyale2022]
Red palm oil (optional) · Mixed into the mash for yellow gari[akpoghelie2025]
Starter: spontaneous; some makers back-slop with old fermented mash

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 days – 3.1 days

Start
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What changes: Starting material: cassava roots, peeled and washed

Step 1 of 8
Peel and wash the roots
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
L. plantarum
Weissella confusa
Lactococcus garvieae
Corynebacterium manihot

Output: peeled roots.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

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

Gari is a solid-state ferment. The grated pulp sours in bags instead of under water, as fufu and lafun do, and it ends on a hot pan, which dries it and drives off more cyanide than steaming does for attiéké.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Ijebu gari (Nigeria)Longer fermentation, very sour, fine and crisp; white.
  • Yellow gariRed palm oil mixed into the pulp.
  • Backslopped gariFresh mash mixed with old fermented mash to speed the souring.
  • Eba and gari soakingsWays of eating it, not ways of making it.

Safety

Cassava roots carry cyanogenic glucosides. Grating lets the root's own enzyme break them down, fermentation and pressing remove more, and roasting drives off most of the rest. In one Benin study the gari still held 6.3–12.8 µg HCN/g dry matter, above the FAO value of 2 µg/g. Codex sets total hydrocyanic acid in gari at no more than 2 mg/kg and moisture at no more than 12 %. Fermentation of 4 to 6 days was the traditional way to detoxify cassava; cutting it to under 2 days has been linked to food poisoning.

History and sources

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

Gari was made by grating cassava, letting the pulp ferment for a few days and then drying it over a fire or in the sun; Portuguese traders brought cassava to Africa in the 16th century.

  1. [codex-gari] Codex Alimentarius, Standard for Gari, CODEX STAN 151 (Rev. 1), as adopted in El Salvador's Norma Salvadoreña Recomendada NSR 67.00.132:99 (Acuerdo 491, 2000), FAOLEXspec
  2. [escobar2021] Escobar A., Rondet E., Dahdouh L., Ricci J., Akissoé N., Dufour D. et al. 2021, Identification of critical versus robust processing unit operations determining the physical and biochemical properties of cassava-based semolina (gari), Int J Food Sci Technol 56:1311–1321, doi:10.1111/ijfs.14857paper
  3. [akpoghelie2025] Akpoghelie P.O., Owheruo J.O., Edo G.I. et al. 2025, The benefits and processing technologies of gari, a famous indigenous food of Nigeria, Discover Food 5, doi:10.1007/s44187-025-00370-1paper
  4. [awoyale2022] Awoyale W., Oyedele H., Adenitan A.A. et al. 2022, Relationship between quality attributes of backslopped fermented gari and the sensory and instrumental texture profile of the cooked dough (eba), J Food Process Preserv, doi:10.1111/jfpp.16115paper
  5. [huch2008] Huch (née Kostinek) M., Hanak A., Specht I., Dortu C.M., Thonart P. et al. 2008, Use of Lactobacillus strains to start cassava fermentations for Gari production, Int J Food Microbiol 128:258–267, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2008.08.017paper
  6. [fao-grace1977] Grace M.R. 1977, Cassava processing, FAO Plant Production and Protection Series No. 3, FAO Rome, chapter 6 (gari)gov
  7. [oyewole-funaab] Oyewole O.B., Cassava processing in Africa, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (traditional 4–6 day fermentation; linamarase)web
  8. [onyike1981] Onyike E.E. 1981, The role of linamarase in cassava (Manihot esculenta) detoxification during fermentation for gari production, thesis, Department of Biochemistry, Ahmadu Bello University, Zariapaper