Cassava (Manihot esculenta, Crantz), when processed into food for human consumption, is processed into different taste of food products, in which pupuru is one of them. The processing of cassava into pupuru originated from Ikale in Okitipupa Local Government of Ondo State, Nigeria. Pupuru is highly rich in carbohydrate, and contains fat, protein, zinc, potassium, calcium, crude fibre. However, the traditional methods of processing it is labourious, time-consuming, unproductive compared to energy input and incapable of meeting the global demands. These challenges have triggered efforts towards mechanizing its processing with the intention of improving its productivity, quality, and ensuring its availability globally. Based on this, this study focused on development of an automatic drying machine for achieving one of the post-harvesting stages in a 5.0 kg/batch pupuru processing plant. An automatic rotary drying machine was designed, constructed, and evaluated with locally sourced materials. The machine, basically, comprises drying chamber, feeder, control unit, gear reduction motor, heating element, stanchion and a cam-follower mechanism for opening the drying chamber outlet door. Five set of experiments were carried out in order to evaluate the performance of the drying machine at five different trough temperatures, 100, 90, 80, 70, and 60 0C over period of 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 hrs respectively. The result revealed that cassava mash dried at trough temperature of 70 0C had lowest moisture content (7.27%), highest percentage moisture loss (28.9%) and that the organoleptic properties (colour, smell and texture) of pupuru flour remain maintained at reduced moisture content. It is hereby recommended that the drying machine can perfectly fit into automated production line, which is the one of the objectives of this study.
Key words: Pupuru, processing method, drying machine, performance
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