SAFETY OF CASSAVA AND CASSAVA-BASED PRODUCTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Forkum, Ambang Tatianne; Wung, Alang Ernest; Tata, Kelese Mark; Ndum, Che Myra; Alvin, Lontum; Kamga, Emmanuel Berinyuy; Nsaikila, Melaine Nyuyfoni; Okwen, Patrick

doi:10.3389/fsufs.2025.1497609

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

Sec. Nutrition and Sustainable Diets

Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1497609

This article is part of the Research Topic Evidence Synthesis For Sustainable Agriculture And Food Systems View all 4 articles

SAFETY OF CASSAVA AND CASSAVA-BASED PRODUCTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Provisionally accepted

Ambang Tatianne Forkum ^*

Alang Ernest Wung

Kelese Mark Tata

Che Myra Ndum

Lontum Alvin

Emmanuel Berinyuy Kamga

Melaine Nyuyfoni Nsaikila

Patrick Okwen

Effective Basic Services (eBASE) Africa, Bamenda, Cameroon

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Objective: To establish the current body of evidence regarding the safety of cassava and cassava-based products for human consumption and to identify the most effective preparation methods to reduce toxicity. Introduction: Cassava is a good source of carbohydrates, calories, calcium, vitamins B and C, and other essential minerals. Cassava and Cassava based products are also a major source of income for rural women, small scale farmers, and small businesses in most of sub-Saharan Africa. Given it is consumed by many people in consuming areas globally and will also consider studies that report on ingested toxins related to the consumption of cassava and cassava-based products. Methods: The main databases searched were CABI, PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and the JBI Evidence Synthesis, Science Direct, Agricola, AGRIS, Web of Science, Scopus and Proquest. We limited our search to studies published from 1980. Two reviewers independently reviewed identified titles and abstracts. We reviewed full papers of relevant abstracts. Data was extracted by two independent reviewers and pooled in a statistical meta-analysis for data synthesis.

Keywords: Cassava-based products, cassava, Hydrogen cyanide (HCN), gari, Food Safety, Cassava processing

Received: 17 Sep 2024; Accepted: 28 Mar 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Forkum, Wung, Tata, Ndum, Alvin, Kamga, Nsaikila and Okwen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Ambang Tatianne Forkum, Effective Basic Services (eBASE) Africa, Bamenda, Cameroon

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.