Use of african cassava varieties for the production in Benin of sour starch, a traditional latin-American baking product

Cassava sour starch is a traditional latin-american product, which is obtained by a natural lactic acid fermentation of wet cassava starch, followed by sun drying. This gluten-free product has a unique baking property : good expansion can be achieved during cooking, without the addition of yeast and other additives, and preliminary dough fermentation. This has great potential in africa for enhancing quality of cassava based bakery products, as well as developing new products. Cassava sour starch production trials were conducted in Benin. Starches from four African and one colombian cassava variety were fermented under different temperatures. The effect of different inocula was also evaluated. It has been shown that sour starch with good bread making quality can be produced under natural fermentation and sun drying conditions in Benin, using african cassava varieties. (Résumé d'auteur