Effect of Doses and Storage Time on Acridity of Irradiated Cocoyam Corms

Cocoyam is a stable food commonly eaten by the people of Eastern Nigeria. Its utilization as a raw material for food products is affected by its acridity content. The traditional method of processing cocoyam for consumption is by cooking which is time and energy consuming. Nigeria Colocasia esculenta spp (NCe 001 and NCe 011) and Xanthosoma sagittifolium spp (NXs 001 and NXs 002) were subjected to gamma irradiation of 20, 40, 80, 120 and 150Gy for one hour and stored. The controls samples and the stored irradiated samples were analysed to determine their acridity content. The effect of storage time on the acridity content of the irradiated cocoyam samples was studied. The main and interaction effects of storage time and dosage on acridity content were obtained statistically. The result of the study showed that there was a 50% reduction in the acridity content of the irradiated samples after 28 weeks of storage. A significant impact on the acridity content for all the varieties at above 80Gy was observed from the result of the study. There is limited information on the effect of gamma irradiation dose rate and storage period on the acridity in the four cocoyam varieties found in Nigeria. The main purpose of this study is to determine the effect of gamma irradiation dose rate and storage period on the acridity content of these four cocoyam varieties.