Utilization of unfermented cassava flour for the production of an indigenous African fermented food, agbelima Wisdom Kofi Amoa-Awua*, Margaret Owusu and Patrick Feglo Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Food Research Institute, P.O. Box M.20, Accra, Ghana, West Africa *Author for correspondence: Tel.: +233-21-500470, Fax +233-21-500331, E-mail: wamoa@libr.ug.edu.gh Received 25 October 2004; accepted 28 January 2005 Keywords: Agbelima, fermentation, high quality cassava flour, lactobacillus, starter culture Summary Unfermented cassava flour, also called high quality cassava flour (HQCF) is used as a partial substitute for wheat flour in the baking industry. This work was carried out to produce an indigenous fermented cassava dough, agbelima, from high quality cassava flour in order to diversify uses for the flour. An isolate of each of the dominant species of lactic acid bacteria isolated from agbelima, was used to ferment reconstituted HQCF dough into agbe- lima, whilst pH changes, population on MRS, and the organoleptic quality were assessed. The antimicrobial properties of the fermenting samples against three enteric pathogens were also investigated. Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus fermentum and Leuconostoc mesenteroides were isolated at levels of 10 10 , 10 9 , 10 9 and 10 8 c.f.u. g )1 respectively in agbelima. All isolates and a control sample, produced agbelima with pH of between 4.11 and 3.82 in 48 h, and ANOVA showed no significant difference between the pH of the samples at P £ 0.05. Spontaneous fermentation of the reconstituted dough was possible, because the flour was found to contain Lac- tobacillus plantarum at a level of 10 6 c.f.u. g )1 as well as the other species isolated from agbelima. Counts of Gram- positive catalase-negative rods and cocci on MRS in all the fermented samples were at levels of 10 8 to 10 9 c.f.u. g )1 , with ANOVA showing no significant difference between the populations at P £ 0.05. Three enteric pathogens, Salmonella typhimurium 9, Echerichia coli D2188 and Vibrio cholerae C-230, inoculated into the samples at 10 6 to 10 7 c.f.u. g )1 at the start of fermentation, could not be detected in 10 g of any of the samples at the end of 48 h fermentation. A taste panel preferred banku - a stiff porridge made from a combination of fermented maize dough and fermented cassava dough – prepared with fermented HQCF dough to banku prepared with a market sample of agbelima or reconstituted agbelima flour. Processing the highly perishable cassava roots into high quality cassava flour, therefore, offers a means for preserving cassava, which can subsequently be used for both industrial and traditional purposes. Introduction Cassava has taken a central stage in food production in Ghana and is considered as a food security crop with a great potential for industrial processing. Due to its importance to the economy and food security of the country, it is being promoted for industrial processing into unfermented cassava flour, which can be used as partial substitute in the baking industry and also as a base for production of adhesives and glue extenders in the textile, paperboard and plywood industries. Recently it has also been used for the production of glucose/maltose syrup. In the industrial application, the cassava roots are either processed into unfermented flour or starch before it is used as industrial raw mate- rial. Thus farmers and traditional food processors are being encouraged to process their cassava harvests into unfermented cassava flour which currently cannot be used for any of the traditional dishes. In order to find a way around this and make cassava flour an even more versatile product, this work was carried out to develop a technology for processing the shelf stable cassava flour into a traditionally fermented product which is con- sumed extensively in Ghana and a few other west Afri- can countries. Agbelima is a sour cassava meal, which is processed by peeling cassava roots and grating them together with a traditional inoculum. The grated mash is packed into plastic sacks and allowed to ferment into agbelima, whilst weights are placed on top of the sacks to dewater the mash simultaneously. Fermentation of agbelima involves both souring by lactic acid bacteria, dominated by Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus brevis and Leuconostoc mesenteroides (Amoa-Awua et al. 1996; Amoa-Awua & Jakobsen 1996; Mante 2000; Mante et al. 2003) and the breakdown of cassava tissue to give a smooth-textured dough by Bacillus spp., yeasts and in some cases moulds, through their cellulolytic activities World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology (2005) 21: 1201–1207 Ó Springer 2005 DOI 10.1007/s11274-005-1441-7