Design and fabrication of a motorised fresh cassava grating machine.

Abstract

The health problems originating from cyanogen exposure from cassava in several African communities could be avoided if effective processing techniques were applied. However, the role of technological intervention in preventing toxic effects has to be considered against the background of the combination of socio-economic and environmental factors that affect the food situation of the population at the community and household level. Long-term exposure with low and occasionally medium levels of cyanogens under stable conditions must be distinguished from exposure under conditions like war, natural disaster, extreme poverty and collapse of the commercial or agricultural system. The highly increasing source of cyanide poisoning exposure in Uganda is the rapid increase in rudimentary and inadequate methods for cassava processing. Both bitter and sweet cassava tubers contain cyanogenic glucosides which breakdown into cyanohydrins and free hydrogen cyanide (HCN), hence the design and fabrication of a motorized fresh cassava grating machine. The objectives of the study were achieved as the grater was fully designed, constructed and tested with performance efficiency of 62.31%