Monday 15 April 2013

FIIRO's Preliminary Results Okay Cassava Bread

The health concern of cassava bread consumers, especially people prone to diabetes, is being addressed by the Glycemic index (GI) studies embarked upon by the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO), Lagos. GI refers to how much and how quickly sugar is released into the body from ingested foods. the higher the index, the faster the food item will release sugar into the blood stream. Rather than rely on general online information alone to find out how these carbohydrate from the cassava flour is handled by the human body, the Institute has taken up research studies that use the cassava-inclusion loaves of 10 and 20 percent to generate the result locally.

And so far, according to the Director General and CEO of the Institute, Dr. Gloria Elemo, the preliminary result has been encouraging, declaring that the cassava is quite safe. The Director General said with inclusion of cassava flour of lower GI than wheat flour, the bread becomes even healthier and more so for even diabetic patients. She said the study stems from the fact that the Institute is unwaveringly commited to the cassava flour production and inclusion in bread, a transformation agenda issue of the Federal Government. She said the cassava industry that is capable of generating about three million jobs is worth all the effort being put in by FIIRO over the past few decades. With a whopping N635 million spent on wheat importation yearly, cassava flour inclusion of 20-40 percent make economic s sense, a situation that would turn around the fortunes of Nigerian farmers and stakeholders in the value chain.

Thursday 11 April 2013

DG Presentation at NISER on Prospects and Challenges of cassava bread

The Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO) pioneered R&D work on composite flours production from cereals, legumes and tubers way back in the “60s with the sole objective of reducing to an extent the importation of wheat into the country.
Major crops worked on for composite flour production include; cassava, sorghum, millet, rice and soybean.
With each of these crops, different levels or percentages of substitution or inclusion were experimented with and the results were very encouraging.

FIIRO has been in the forefront of the use of Cassava for various food products as far back as the 60’s.
FIIRO has been in the forefront of the use of cassava for various food products as far back as the 60’s.

In 1964, a composite flour programme was initiated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations which President Shehu Shagari’s administration keyed into.

This programme was conceived as an intervention by FAO primarily to reduce importation bills on wheat for developing countries by stimulating local production and processing of non-wheat flour(s) to be incorporated into wheat flour.

FIIRO was identified as one of the centres of  excellence for composite flour and was funded.

FIIRO and IITA explore stronger collaboration

IITA and the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO) in Nigeria are forging stronger ties and will work together on postharvest and cassava research, capacity building, and youth development. This was highlighted during a recent visit by IITA to FIIRO. FIIRO is one of the pioneering R4D centers for cassava in Nigeria. The institute has made significant contributions to the understanding of cassava fermentation and the development of mechanized technologies for processing gari and fufu flour, among other cassava products.