Roots and tubers

Also called abacha, abacha ncha, African salad.

dry cassava shreds for salad

1. Boil roots, shred into strips
2. Soak in water24 h
3. Sun-dry; rehydrate to make salad with ugba (fermented oil bean)

Also called agbelima, cassava dough, agbelima.

sour cassava dough, cooked into banku or akple

1. Grate cassava and add the inoculum
2. Ferment2 days
3. Press in sacks

Safety: Enteric pathogens added to 48-h agbelima died off: Vibrio cholerae and Salmonella were undetectable in 10 g after 4 h, Shigella and E. coli after up to 8 h [s3].

• Amoa-Awua W.K., Appoh F.E., Jakobsen M. 1996, Lactic acid fermentation of cassava dough into agbelima, Int J Food Microbiol 31(1–3):87–98, doi:10.1016/0168-1605(96)00967-1
• Amoa-Awua W.K. et al. 1997, J Appl Microbiol 83:288-296, doi:10.1046/j.1365-2672.1997.00227.x
• Mante E.S. et al. 2003, Int J Food Microbiol 89:41-50

Also called bobolo, bâton de manioc (Cameroon), mbong.

Long thin leaf-wrapped sour cassava sticks.

1. Ret roots in water2-8 days (Central African range)
2. Peel, remove fibre, pound or mill
3. Precook, knead, roll into long thin sticks and wrap in leaves
4. Final boil or steamabout 1.5 h (domestic recipe)

Safety: See mintoumba for market hygiene findings.

• Afrik.com, Bâton de manioc ou bôbôlô, https://www.afrik.com/baton-de-manioc-ou-bobolo
• Bouniol A. et al. 2017, CIRAD report on improved cassava varieties for bâton/chikwangue in Cameroon, https://agritrop.cirad.fr/595635

Also called bwiro, bwiru.

Sour breadfruit paste cooked with coconut milk.

1. Pack ripe breadfruit into a leaf-lined pit or boxabout 2 months before first use; stores 'indefinitely' if lining leaves are changed
2. Mix with coconut milk, wrap in leaves, cook in an underground oven

• Wikipedia, Marshallese cuisine, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshallese_cuisine
• RMI nuclear documents archive (Marshallese food account, bwiro ready after two months), https://rminucleardocs.icaad.ngo/en/entity/yn4c76l50on?page=311

Also called ch'uñu, chuño negro, chuño blanco, tunta, moraya, freeze-dried potato.

light, storable dried potato (years)

1. Spread on ground for ~3 nights of frost~3 nights
2. Trample to squeeze out water and remove skins
3. Chuño negro - refreeze and sun-dry unwashed
4. Tunta: soak in running water, then sun-dry7–30 days

Safety: leaching removes bitter glycoalkaloids

• Wikipedia, Chuño (citing Peñarrieta & Alvarado 2012; de Haan 2012), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuño
• INIA Peru, Arcos et al., Variedades de papas nativas para procesamiento de tunta, https://pgc-snia.inia.gob.pe:8443/jspui/bitstream/inia/768/1/Arcos-Variedades_papas_nativas_procesamiento_tunta.pdf

Also called cingwada, kivunde, cingwada-kivunde.

fermented cassava flour for stiff porridge

1. Ferment roots (solid-state heap or soaking), then dry and mill4–5 days · 30 °C

Safety: Cyanide is the main hazard. In lab kivunde at 30 °C, a starter of four L. plantarum strains brought residual cyanide below the 10 mg/kg Codex limit by 120 h, while spontaneous and backslopped batches still held 43.5 and 47.7 mg/kg dry weight at 96 h and spoiled after 3 days [s1b].

• Tamang et al. 2016, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00377/full
• Kimaryo V.M. et al. 2000, Int J Food Microbiol 56:179-190, doi:10.1016/S0168-1605(00)00159-8

Also called davuke, madrai ni Viti (bread from pit starch, reported), masi, Fijian pit fermentation.

Sour pit-fermented starch paste; nutritional quality similar to the fresh fruit.

1. Pack peeled fruit or roots into a leaf-lined pit (davuke)weeks to months
2. Cook (often as a pudding or bread with coconut)

• Aalbersberg W.G.L., Lovelace C.E.A., Madhoji K., Parkinson S.V. 1988, Davuke, the traditional Fijian method of pit preservation of staple carbohydrate foods, Ecol Food Nutr 21(3):173-180, https://repository.usp.ac.fj/4901
• Aalbersberg W.G.L., Dreier U., Parkinson S. 1994, Microbiology of pit fermentation of breadfruit and cassava in Fiji, USP technical report, https://repository.usp.ac.fj/id/eprint/5078/ (record only)

Also called rouissage à sec, sack retting, waterless retting.

Retted cassava for foufou flour or chikwangue made with very little water.

1. Pre-cut roots into rounds about 3 cm thick
2. Ferment in a gas-tight sack, packed tight (semi-anaerobic)3–4 days
3. Post-soak 24 h in water24 h

• Trèche S. (dir.), ORSTOM final report, opération Congo, section 2.4, https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers20-08/35896.pdf

Flour cooked into a fufu-like swallow.

1. Peel, comminute and steep-ferment5 days
2. Dewater, oven-dry at 50 °C and mill50 °C

• Adeniran H.A., Gbadamosi S.O., Omobuwajo T.O. 2012, Microbiological and physicochemical changes in breadfruit fermentation for a fufu-like product, Int J Food Sci Technol 47:332-340, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2621.2011.02843.x

Also called fufu, àkpụ̀, foufou, akpu (Igbo), loi-loi, fufu-cassava.

smooth, sticky, sour cassava dough eaten with soup

1. Peel and cut roots
2. Soak (retting) in watertraditional 4-6 days (2-5 days common; 48-60 h optimum in lab); under 2 days linked to poisoning
3. Mash and wet-sieve (remove fibre)
4. Settle; decant; press in cloth or sack
5. Cook and pound (or stir into boiling water)

Safety: Short retting leaves cyanogens; long retting gives strong odour.

• Oyewole, FUNAAB, https://funaab.edu.ng/cassava-processing-in-africa
• Tamang et al. 2016, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00377/full
• Oyewole O.B. 2001, Int J Food Microbiol 65:213-218, doi:10.1016/S0168-1605(01)00431-7

Also called gatot, growol.

famine and village staples

1. Gatot - peeled chips sun-dried and moistened until blackened by mould; soaked and steamed
2. Growol - roots soaked 3-5 days (typical), pressed, steamed as a sour cake

• Tamang et al. 2016 (tapé, tapai ubi), https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00377/full

Also called imikembe.

sour fermented cooked cassava eaten with beans

1. Peel, wash and boil the rootsuntil fully cooked (time not given)
2. Break up and remove fibres
3. Ferment under water, changing the water every two days~1 week

Safety: Boiling before soaking plus repeated water changes help leach cyanogens (general cassava practice, typical).

• Aloys N., Angeline N. 2009. Traditional fermented foods and beverages in Burundi. Food Research International 42(5–6):588–594. doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2009.02.021 (via FermDB description)
• FermDB, Bokulich lab (ETH Zurich), FermDB_data.tsv, row 'Imikembe', https://github.com/bokulich-lab/FermDB (CC BY 4.0)

Also called inyange.

slightly dark fermented cassava flour (cooked as a stiff paste)

1. Peel, wash, cut into pieces
2. Sun-dry1 day
3. Heap, cover with plantain leaves or straw, ferment5 days
4. Scrape off mould, sun-dry again, pound

Safety: Heap/mould fermentation of cassava is the same family as Tanzanian/Ugandan mouldy cassava flour (atlas `cassava-dry-sack-retting`, `cingwada-kivunde`); mycotoxin risk is reported for such products elsewhere (typical, not measured for inyange).

• Aloys & Angeline 2009, Food Research International 42:588–594, doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2009.02.021 (via FermDB)
• FermDB row 'Inyange', https://github.com/bokulich-lab/FermDB

Also called ቆጮ, ቡላ, qocho, waasa (Sidama), unsa, bulla (starch).

sour, dense bread-like staple (with kitfo, ayibe)

1. Harvest mature plant; scrape leaf sheaths (decorticate) with bamboo scraper; grate corm
2. Mix pulp with starter; short surface fermentationseveral weeks (typical)
3. Pack into pit lined with enset leaves; cover and weight2 months – 2 years
4. Squeeze to separate bulla (starch-rich liquid), dry it
5. Bake kocho as flatbread on griddle, wrapped in enset leaf

Safety: Kocho fermented to pH 4.3 inhibited Salmonella, B. cereus and S. aureus [s4]. Long-term kocho can be dominated by the B. cereus group, a safety concern [s3].

• Wikipedia, Kocho (food) (citing Steinkraus Handbook of Indigenous Fermented Foods), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kocho_(food)
• Andeta A.F. et al. 2018, Food Microbiol 73:342-350, doi:10.1016/j.fm.2018.02.011
• Andeta A.F. et al. 2019, J Appl Microbiol 126:842-853, doi:10.1111/jam.14173
• Birmeta G. et al. 2019, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 112:651-659, doi:10.1007/s10482-018-1192-8
• Nigatu A., Gashe B.A. 1994, East Afr Med J 71:514-518
• Weldemichael H. et al. 2019, Food Sci Biotechnol 28:1125-1134

Also called kokonte, chorchor (home-made type), lapin (Togo), konkonte, face-the-wall, dried cassava chips.

Kokonte is cassava peeled, cut into pieces and dried slowly in the sun or over a fire, often until moulds grow on it and darken it. The dried pieces are milled into a flour that is stirred into boiling water to make a brown, stiff dough. Mould growth during drying is a solid-state fermentation, which in a related Ugandan heap method removed most of the cassava's cyanide.

1. Peel and cut the roots
2. Dry slowly in the sun or over a fire, letting moulds grow
3. Store dry
4. Mill and stir into boiling water

Safety: Cassava must lose its cyanogens before it is eaten. In Uganda, heap fermentation under moulds cut total cyanogens from 436.3 to 20.4 mg CN equivalents per kg, much more than sun-drying alone, but not always to safe levels; mould growth itself lowered cyanogenic glucosides further in the lab. The same moulds bring a risk. Aspergillus flavus, an aflatoxin producer, was the most common mould in market kokonte flour. Dry the pieces well and keep the flour at 12 % moisture or less.

• Al-Hassan R., Egyir I., ch. 7, The potential for farm/non-farm linkages in the cassava subsector in Ghana, FAO
• Essers A.J., Ebong C., van der Grift R.M., Nout M.J., Otim-Nape W., Rosling H. 1995, Reducing cassava toxicity by heap-fermentation in Uganda, International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition 46(2):125–136, doi:10.3109/09637489509012540 (abstract)
• Essers A.J., Jurgens C.M., Nout M.J. 1995, Contribution of selected fungi to the reduction of cyanogen levels during solid substrate fermentation of cassava, International Journal of Food Microbiology 26(2):251–257, doi:10.1016/0168-1605(94)00116-n (abstract)
• Awaitey B.T., Mills-Robertson F.C. 2017, Filamentous fungi in selected processed indigenous flours sold in Kumasi, Ghana, Food & Nutrition Journal 2(6):146
• Wikipedia, Kokonte (outline only)

Also called kumkum, kum-kum, nkum-nkum, couscous (Cameroon), kum kum, couscous de manioc (Cameroon).

fermented cassava flour stirred into a stiff fufu (Cameroonian 'couscous')

1. Peel and soak-ferment the roots
2. Dry and mill
3. Cook into fufu

Safety: Yaoundé market samples carried Staphylococcus (21 %) and Listeria monocytogenes (13 %), the highest rates of the five products, plus E. coli and coliforms, which point to poor handling and storage [Tanyitiku 2024]. Proper cooking into fufu is the control step.

• FermDB row 'Kumkum' (Cameroon), 'fermented cassava flour', citing Okafor 1977, J. Appl. Bacteriol. 42:279–284
• Tanyitiku M.N. 2024, Microbiological contamination of fermented cassava products sold in local markets, Yaounde (Cameroon), African Journal of Agriculture and Food Science 7(2):1–14, doi:10.52589/ajafs-dpamm68w, https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/48066/
• Numfor F.A. and Noubi L., soybean-fortified fermented cassava flour study, UNU archive https://archive.unu.edu/unupress/food/8F163e/8F163E0b.htm (via search summary; the page did not load)

Also called láfún, cassava flour (fermented), amala lafun, konkonte (relative), lafun.

white fermented cassava flour and stiff dough

1. Soak peeled or unpeeled roots3-5 days (end = sufficient softening)
2. Break up, remove fibre/core; sun-dry piecesdays
3. Mill to flour
4. Stir into boiling water

• Oyewole, FUNAAB, https://funaab.edu.ng/cassava-processing-in-africa
• Tamang et al. 2016, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00377/full
• Padonou S.W. et al. 2009, Int J Food Microbiol 133:22-30, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2009.04.019
• Padonou S.W. et al. 2010, J Appl Microbiol 109:1402-1410

Also called mahr, furo (Chuuk, reported), kahlipw (the pit).

Tart doughy breadfruit paste baked in leaves; famine and voyage food.

1. Peel, core and soak or bruise the fruit
2. Pack into a leaf-lined pit (kahlipw), cover with leaves and stonesweeks to a year or more
3. Knead with coconut cream, wrap in leaves and bake in an earth oven

Safety: Lining leaves must be renewed to keep long-stored pits sound (Marshallese practice).

• National Tropical Botanical Garden, Breadfruit ethnobotany, https://ntbg.org/breadfruit/research/ethnobotany/
• Atchley J., Cox P.A. 1985, Breadfruit fermentation in Micronesia, Economic Botany 39(3):326-335 (abstract via search summary)
• NTBG herbarium record PTBG1000037545 (kahlipw pit, leaf lining), https://ntbg.org/database/herbarium/detail/PTBG1000037545

Also called mbala-mpinda, chikwangue with groundnut paste.

Chikwangue enriched with groundnut.

1. Make two-cook chikwangue paste up to the second kneading
2. Knead groundnut paste into the precooked paste, wrap and cook again

• Trèche S. (dir.) c.1993, Amélioration de la qualité des aliments fermentés à base de manioc: opération Congo, rapport final, ORSTOM contract TS2A-0226F, https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers20-08/35896.pdf (scanned; read from page images)

Also called mintoumba, mintumba.

Orange, oily, sour cassava cake eaten with sauce or as a snack.

1. Ret and pound cassava to a fermented pastedays (as bobolo)
2. Mix with red palm oil, salt and chilli; wrap and steam or cook
3. Dry (some producers)

Safety: A 2024 Yaoundé market survey found unsatisfactory total viable counts, yeasts, moulds, E. coli and coliforms in mintoumba and other fermented cassava products.

• Afrik.com, Miondo, bobolo et mintoumba: l'art de transformer le manioc, https://www.afrik.com/miondo-bobolo-et-mintoumba-l-art-de-transformer-le-manioc
• 2024 Yaoundé fermented cassava market study (kum-kum, garri, water fufu, bobolo, mintoumba), https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/48066/

Also called mocaf, tepung mocaf, modified cassava flour, mocal.

White neutral cassava flour with better baking and noodle performance than plain cassava flour.

1. Peel and slice into chips
2. Soak-ferment with starter12-72 h (studies use 12, 24, 36-48 and 72 h)
3. Drain, dry and mill

• Indonesian J Biotechnology (UGM), MOCAF fermentation study, https://journal.ugm.ac.id/ijbiotech/article/download/54119/30906
• University of Jember MOCAF fermentation-time studies (0-72 h), https://repository.unej.ac.id/handle/123456789/79989

Also called moraya, moray, chuño blanco (Peru).

White, light dried potato. Moraya differs from tunta only in the still water used for soaking.

1. Freeze outdoors at night, thaw by dayseveral nights (as chuño)
2. Soak in semi-stagnant water (pools)weeks (tunta in running water: about 1 month)
3. Peel and sun-dry

Safety: Boundary entry. Leaching of glycoalkaloids is the main purpose; fermentation is not demonstrated.

• Agraria.pe, Productos andinos como tunta, tocosh y chuño serán estudiados (moraya in semi-stagnant water), https://agraria.pe/noticias/productos-andinos-como-tunta-tocosh-y-chuno-seran-estudiado-3103
• Fonseca C. et al. 2011, cited in INIA, Variedades de papas nativas para procesamiento de tunta, https://pgc-snia.inia.gob.pe:8443/jspui/bitstream/inia/768/1/Arcos-Variedades_papas_nativas_procesamiento_tunta.pdf

Also called oyek, nasi oyek, dried growol.

Dry sour cassava granules re-steamed and eaten as a rice substitute.

1. Soak peeled cassava in water (spontaneous fermentation)days (exact count not found)
2. Mash, shape and steam into growol
3. Crumble and sun-dry
4. Re-steam to eat

• UGM Agritech, growol/oyek Kulon Progo study, https://journal.ugm.ac.id/agritech/article/view/9335 (seen via search summary)

Also called ポッチェイモ, ペネイモ, munini-imo, muninimo-sito, potceimo, potche imo.

grilled chewy cakes of fermented potato starch

1. Leave potatoes under snow over winterwinter, until snow melt (no fixed count)
2. Peel, crush and wash repeatedly in a tub of water
3. Squeeze and dry the starch for storage
4. Rehydrate, knead, shape and grill

• ja.wikipedia, ペネイモ, https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ペネイモ (citing Kyoto Shimbun 2017; Kayano Shigeru radio text; Tomamin Shimbun)
• Walkerplus, アイヌの保存食はどんな味?, https://www.walkerplus.com/article/151680/ (winter freezing, spring natural fermentation)

Also called mā, masi, māhi, furo, bwiru (reported, verify), fermented breadfruit paste.

sour, sticky breadfruit paste; famine and voyaging food

1. Peel and wash fruit (sometimes cut, soaked in seawater)
2. Bury in leaf-lined pitseveral weeks to ferment
3. Long storage in pita year or more; some pits reported edible after 20+ years
4. Knead, wrap in leaves, bake or boil

• Pollock N. 1984, Breadfruit fermentation practices in Oceania, J Société des Océanistes (via Wikipedia Breadfruit), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadfruit
• CTAHR Univ. Hawaiʻi, Making Mā: Fermented Breadfruit (cited in Wikipedia)

Also called poi, paʻi ʻai, fresh poi, sour poi, one-finger/two-finger/three-finger poi.

smooth purple-grey paste; eaten fresh or sour (with lomi salmon, salted fish)

1. Cook taro cormshours
2. Peel and pound with water
3. Ferment (souring)day by day; studies sample at 48 h; sourness increases each day

Safety: acidity protects; freezing or drying stops souring

• Wikipedia, Poi (Hawaiian food), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poi_(Hawaiian_food)
• University of Hawaiʻi ScholarSpace, poi LAB isolates, https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/items/0391106c-1f5a-4fe9-80a4-4b20f127d7fc
• USDA NIFA project on probiotic LAB in poi, https://portal.nifa.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/1004673-profiling-characterization-and-application-of-potentially-probiotic-lactic-acid-bacteria-in-poi-and-fermented-taro-skins.html

Also called polvilho azedo, almidón agrio, fécula fermentada, sour cassava starch, polvilho-azedo.

sour starch that puffs without gluten or leavening (pão de queijo, biscoito de polvilho, pandebono)

1. Extract starch (grate, wash, sieve, settle)
2. Ferment under a water layer in tanks20–30 days
3. Sun-dry on trays or racks~7 h direct sun (5 mm layer) to below 18% moisture; traditionally days

Safety: Open sun drying risks dirt and contamination.

• Oliveira D.I. et al. 2020/2021, Food Sci Technol (Campinas) 41 suppl 1, doi:10.1590/fst.16120, https://scielo.br/j/cta/a/cZTzHYXKvzmkjjzCrSzRV8v
• UEPG repository: Polvilho azedo tradicional obtido com alteração na etapa de secagem solar, https://ri.uepg.br/handle/123456789/3701
• Brazilian J Microbiology on standardising sour starch (24-day process), https://www.elsevier.es/en-revista-brazilian-journal-microbiology-490-pdf-download-S1517838217304859
• Lacerda I.C.A. et al. 2005, Int J Food Microbiol 105:213-219
• Lacerda I.C.A. et al. 2011, Braz J Microbiol 42:650-657
• Penido F.C.L. et al. 2018, Braz J Microbiol 49:823-831
• Alvarado P.M. et al. 2013, Carbohydr Polym 98:1137-1146
• Ampe F. et al. 2001, Int J Food Microbiol 65:45-54

Also called puba, carimã, massa puba, farinha d'água, mandioca puba, puba-carima-farinha-dagua.

sour cassava paste (puba) or toasted granules (farinha d'água)

1. Soak whole roots in water (often in streams or troughs)several days (typical 3-8) until soft
2. Puba - peel, mash, sieve, press, dry
3. Farinha d'água - mix soaked roots with fresh grated cassava, press in tipiti, sieve, toast on large pan

• Crispim S.M. et al. 2013, Braz J Microbiol 44:15-21
• Perez K.J. et al. 2017, Front Microbiol 8:61, doi:10.3389/fmicb.2017.00061

Also called pupuru, pupuru flour, ikwurikwu (reported).

Smoky, sour cassava swallow eaten with obe aselu/asepo (fish soup).

1. Peel, cut and soak (ret)4-6 days
2. Drain in sacks and press, then mould into balls
3. Smoke-dry on a rack (aka) over a wood stovedays
4. Peel the crust, mill and sieve; cook as a swallow

Safety: Market pupuru flour often carries aflatoxin: 73.8% of 42 samples positive, 41.9% above the 10 µg/kg Nigerian limit (Ekpakpale 2021).

• FUNAAB, Processing technology of pupuru: a survey of practices and production quality in the South West of Nigeria, https://publications.funaab.edu.ng/index.php/Series_B/article/view/535
• Ekpakpale D.O. et al. 2021, Fungal and aflatoxin contamination of pupuru and grains, J Fungi 7:635, doi:10.3390/jof7080635
• BusinessDay Nigeria, Obe aselu asepo ati pupuru, https://businessday.ng/food/article/obe-aselu-asepo-ati-pupuru-proudly-nigerian-superfood-that-can-gain-un-cultural-status/

Also called ubuswage.

sour cassava paste ball in plantain leaf

1. Peel, wash, boil and defibreuntil cooked
2. Soak in water to ferment (water changed after 2 days)2 weeks
3. Re-boil in fresh water
4. Pound to paste, form a ball, wrap in plantain leaves

Safety: Two-week soak and two boilings reduce cyanogens (typical).

• Aloys & Angeline 2009, Food Research International 42:588–594, doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2009.02.021 (via FermDB)
• FermDB row 'Ubuswage', https://github.com/bokulich-lab/FermDB