DEVELOPMENT OF AN IMPROVED GARI FRYER

Traditional frying of cassava mash into gari continues to be an onerous and complex unit operation for food processors. It is highly labor intensive, tedious, unhygienic and low productivity compared with the time and labor invested. The aim of this study was to design, develop a gari fryer, and evaluate its performance efficiency as affected by the mash moisture content. Cassava mash of different moisture contents (44.12, 45, 46.99, 48.99, 50.31, and 54.94 %) were fried, and the performance characteristics including, roasting time, percentage material loss, throughput capacity, and functional efficiency were evaluated. Results obtained indicated that frying cassava mash at 44.12 % wb moisture content produced the best frying condition, as it had the least material loss and frying time of 25 % and 1.17 hr, best throughput capacity and functional efficiency of 6.6 kg/hr and 75 %. The fabricated gari frying does not require technical expertise and can effectively address the challenges associated with traditional gari frying.