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Concept
Tapioca
Summary
Tapioca (ˌtæpiˈoʊkə; tapiˈɔkɐ) is a starch extracted from the storage roots of the cassava plant (Manihot esculenta, also known as manioc), a species native to the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, but whose use is now spread throughout South America. It is a perennial shrub adapted to the hot conditions of tropical lowlands. Cassava copes better with poor soils than many other food plants.
Tapioca is a staple food for millions of people in tropical countries. It provides only carbohydrate food value, and is low in protein, vitamins, and minerals. In other countries, it is used as a thickening agent in various manufactured foods.
Tapioca is derived from the word tipi'óka, its name in the Tupi language spoken by natives when the Portuguese first arrived in the Northeast Region of Brazil around 1500. This Tupi word is translated as 'sediment' or 'coagulant' and refers to the curd-like starch sediment that is obtained in the extraction process.
Cassava#Production
The cassava plant has either red or green branches with blue spindles on them. The root of the green-branched variant requires treatment to remove linamarin, a cyanogenic glycoside occurring naturally in the plant, which otherwise may be converted into cyanide. Konzo (also called mantakassa) is a paralytic disease associated with several weeks of almost exclusive consumption of insufficiently processed bitter cassava.
In Brazil's north and northeast, traditional community-based tapioca production is a byproduct of manioc flour production from cassava roots. In this process, the manioc (after treatment to remove toxicity) is ground to a pulp with a small hand- or diesel-powered mill. This masa is then squeezed to dry it out. The wet masa is placed in a long woven tube called a tipiti. The top of the tube is secured while a large branch or lever is inserted into a loop at the bottom and used to stretch the entire implement vertically, squeezing a starch-rich liquid out through the weave and ends.
Official source
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