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9.3 Other Taro-based Products
Nicolas Y. Njintang1,3, Joel Scher2, and Carl M.F. Mbofung3
1 Faculty of Sciences, University of Ngaoundere, Adamaoua, Cameroon
2Laboratoire d'Ingenierie des Biomolecules (LIBio), Universite de Lorraine
3National School of Agro Industrial Sciences, University of Ngaoundere, Adamaoua, Cameroon
9.3.1 Introduction
Taro is a crop that easily grows in the tropics. The underground tubers called corms and cormels are high in water content, and in this respect highly perishable. Taro is commonly sold in its raw form and has a short (3-10 days) shelf life. Because of this, many nutritious corms are wasted. In order to reduce the loss, farmers have to sell at a cheaper rate during the harvesting season, and consequently they fall short on their potential profits. This happens for most of crops in developing countries and consequently the populations limit their production during the next years and the vicious circle of poverty, food insecurity and under-development is installed. In addition, fresh taro corms contain high levels of calcium oxalate, which is responsible for its acridity. In this respect taro corms are transformed into various food products either to reduce their moisture content and improve the shelf life or to reduce the acridity, anti-nutrients and improve the digestibility. While bakeries and snacks (deep-fried taro chips and deep-fried baskets ― shredded taro molded into basket shapes and then deep-fried in china ― steamed taro cake, taro batter and bread, cakes and chunks in Hawaii), are gaining interest in research and industry, other products remain at the home scale.
Beside bakeries and snacks, other taro products include poi in Hawaii, fermented taro, achu in Africa, taro soup, etc. The effort to broaden the food base is of great interest in developing countries, where low industrialization and poverty are still a major problem. In particular, taro has been shown to offer alternatives to new product development based on its functional properties. This chapter highlights the major contribution to research on taro products other than bakeries and snacks.