Fitting of the models
The pH and TTA of cassava mash obtained from the 19 runs during various
fermentation conditions is presented in Table 2. The pH of the cassava
mash ranged between 3.8 to 4.60 to a range of 3.80 (run 9) to 4.60 (run
3, 8, 13). The fresh cassava with pH 6.5 has been shown to have reduced;
this indicated that fermentation reduced the pH of the cassava mash.
This agrees with the report of [8] for gari production which
reduced from 6.7 to 4.0; Oyewole and Ogundele [11] for fufuwhich reduced from 5.8 – 4.1; Oyewole and Ogundele [11] had
reported that fermentation process was characterized by increased acid
production. While the total titratable acidity (TTA) ranged from 0.09
(run 17, 18) to 0.22% (run 5) lactic acid. The TTA obtained were higher
than those reported by Osundahunsi [2] for “pupuru” (0.09 – 0.12)
and Awolu et al [12] for Abacha (0.047 to 0.073%) but
within the range reported by [11] for fufu (0.08 – 0.22) %
lactic acid. The activity of lactic acid bacteria on the carbohydrates
of the cassava root has been attributed to the acid production during
cassava fermentation [5]. This may be as a result of the several
microbes and enzymes such as polygalacturonase, pectinase and cellulase
with tissue degrading activities associative interaction of tissue
softening produced [5]. The long fermentation time resulted in
flavour addition to the product by the increase in total titratable
Acidity (TTA) and decrease in pH level.