Cassava is the most important root crop in Nigeria. Apart from being a staple crop in both rural and urban household’s cassava is a major source of income to cassava farmers and processors in the rural areas. 

Cassava alone contributes about forty-five percent (45%) of agricultural GDP in Nigeria for food or domestic purposes but its industrial processing and utilization has been very limited. 

Currently, the country produces about forty (40,000,000) million tons of the cassava tubers annually and due to the desire of the federal government to reduce import dependency and conserve of scare foreign exchange, there is national programme aimed at increasing the production of cassava starch as an alternative to corn starch.

Starch is the major constituent of the cassava plant. Its thickening and binding qualities makes it useful in convenience foods and baby foods. Starch makes good adhesives. Dextrin is a modified starch with quality adhesive properties.

Market findings revealed that the product has a lot of industrial applications. It could be used as food in the preparation of bread, macro, noodles, custard, sauce, snacks and Ogi. 

Instant noodles are a noodle dish, sold in a precooked and dried noodle block, with flavoring powder and/or seasoning oil. The flavoring is usually in a separate packet, although in the case of cup noodles the flavoring is often loose in the cup.

Some instant noodle products are seal packed; these can be reheated or eaten straight from the packet/container. Dried noodle blocks are designed to be cooked or soaked in boiling water before eating, but can be consumed dry.

The main ingredients used in dried noodles are usually wheat flour, palm oil, and salt. Common ingredients in the flavoring powder are salt, monosodium glutamate, seasoning, and sugar.

Over the years noodles have become an acceptable and domineering food component of most Nigerian homes because of its unique taste and ease of preparation, with the first noodle brand introduced into the country more than twenty (20) years ago.  It is a staple food which originated from Asia in the 9th century and then spread to Europe, the far-east and the rest of the world with the major primary ingredient of production being wheat.

In the noodle industry of the country, there are about seventeen (17) players in noodle manufacturing with more than thirty thousand (30,000) people directly employed in the industry and more than two hundred thousand (200,000) distributors employed.

This has created a huge avenue for supplies for the flour milling companies, the refineries, the palm oil plantations, the packaging companies and the carton manufacturers with the consumption rate around two hundred and sixty to two hundred and eighty thousand (260,000 to 280,000) tonnes per annum.

One of the challenges faced by the industry is the rising cost and availability of its primary raw material in this case which will be wheat powder. There is a global demand for wheat in the international market from the brewing industries, confectionary industries and also competition from the local industry. This places pressure on the commodity subjecting it to erratic price fluctuations.

Cassava starch is a very good substitute for wheat flour in the production of noodles and can be blended with wheat flour to reduce the quantity wheat required in the production of noodles.