Root crop flour

Materials

• Fresh root crop tubers (cassava, sweet potato, taro or yam)
• Clean water

Equipment

• Sharp knives
• Buckets
• Slicer (manual or mechanised)
• Drier
• Grinder (manual or mechanised using mills)
• Sieves
• Bag sealer

Preparation

1. Wash, peel and re - wash the tubers. Place the peeled tubers in a bucket of clean water until ready to slice.
2. Slice the tubers to a thickness of 2 - 3 mm.
3. Place the tuber slices in a single layer, on drying trays. Place the drying trays in the sun or in a hot air drier as soon as possible. Continue drying the tuber slices until they snap cleanly and crisply.
4. Allow the tuber slices to cool. The dry tuber slices can be stored in sealed plastic bags or sacks, in a dry, well ventilated storage space until ready for grinding.
5. Grind the dried tuber slices into flour when required. During the grinding operation the flour should be sieved to remove the coarse particles. The coarse particles can be re - ground. Grinding and sieving operations should be repeated until the flour resembles very fine powder.
6. The flour should be stored in clean, dry, airtight containers, sealed plastic bags or sacks until required. The flour should then be stored in a clean, cool, dry place. it is important to label the containers of flour with the name of the product and the date that it was made.