Nobody eats this. The yuca your mama serves with roast pork is a completely different plant.
Posted on 03/10/2005 12:50:44 AM PST by freepatriot32
Thirty elementary school children died of food poisoning yesterday after eating a native delicacy made from cassava flour at the San Jose Elementary School in Mabini town, Bohol.
San Jose Vice Mayor Ester Tabigi said authorities had not yet determined exactly how many children had fallen ill, but at least 50 were still in critical condition last night in various hospitals in the nearby towns of Ubay and Talibon. Some children were brought as far as the provincial capital of Tagbilaran City, some 100 kilometers from Mabini.
Reports said the children, mostly second and third-grade pupils, started complaining of stomach pains and dizziness right after eating the cassava cake, known locally as maruya, during the morning recess at around 10:30.
"At 12 noon, teachers started to send victims to hospitals for treatment. Unfortunately, many of them failed to make it," said Philip Puderanan, public information officer of the Bohol Municipal Hall.
Senior Superintendent Sancho Bernales, chief of the Bohol police, said the children were taken to different hospitals in the province for medical treatment.
Military trucks reportedly helped bring the children to hospitals, the nearest of which was 20 to 30 kilometers away in Ubay town.
Of the 19 children taken to the Lita Cotamora Clinic in Ubay, 14 died and five were transferred to the nearby government-owned Don Emilio del Valle Hospital, where 20 other victims were confined. There were also two deaths reported at the Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital in Tagbilaran.
Doctors who attended to the victims said food poisoning was the cause of death.
Sketchy reports said at least two women were responsible for selling the cassava cakes to the San Jose school children. One was identified as Aning Luyong, 60, who reportedly regularly sold snacks at the school. Luyong was said to have eaten the rest of the cassava cakes after the children fell ill and is now also in critical condition.
Another vendor, a 68-year-old woman, is reportedly now under the custody of Mabini town Mayor Stephen Rances.
"Kung puwedeng humingi kami ng tulong at mapa-imbestigahan ang pagkamatay ng mga bata. Kailangan namin ang mga experts para matulungan kami (We are appealing for help in investigating the cause of death of the children. We need experts)," Rances said yesterday.
Bohol Vice Gov. Julius Cesar Herrera said provincial health authorities in Tagbilaran will conduct further investigation to determine the victims’ exact cause of death.
The Department of Health has also sent medical experts to Mabini yesterday to investigate the incident. Tapped to conduct the probe were disease experts from the DOH’s Regional Service Unit in Bohol.
"The hospitals have enough manpower and supply to handle this. We are coordinating with our people in the field," Dr. Yolando Oliveros, head executive assistant of Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit, said.
Meanwhile, Bohol native George Evardo, a radio reporter, said cassava, known locally as balanghoy, should be cooked properly, especially during the hot season, as the wrong process can lead to bacterial poisoning. – With reports from Cecille Suerte Felipe, Shiela Crisostomo, AFP
Sorry for the late comment, but I had to go get my car inspected, and I just got home.
The Yuca bread recipe sounds interesting. Question: Does your friend’s yuca have a bitter taste to it? I ask because I’m curious. I’m trying to compare your friend’s yuca with ours.
Also, now that I am thinking about it, and I verified it just now, when making the dough for the yuca frituras (here in Panama), a tiny, tiny bit of regular wheat flour is added to the dough to make it hold together better.
One way yuca is eaten here is after it is boiled, slather butter on it with a little bit of salt and a tiny bit of garlic. One can also chop up a little bit of parsley and sprinkle it over the yuca for color. I much prefer the yuca frituras, though.
According to google, there are two varieties of cassava, the bitter kind, that is poisonous and is used to make tapioca, and the sweet kind, which is not poisonous, and is also known as yuca.
Yucca isn't yuca. Yuca, cassava, manioc, all are names for the same two plants, the bitter/poisonous one which they use to make tapioca, and the sweet/non-poisonous one which tastes a lot like a potato.
The yucca in your yard is a completely different plant.
"Yucca isn't yuca. Yuca, cassava, manioc, all are names for the same two plants, the bitter/poisonous one which they use to make tapioca, and the sweet/non-poisonous one which tastes a lot like a potato.
"The yucca in your yard is a completely different plant."
Please expand on this...thank you. I'm interested.
Oh, I see....I didn't catch the difference in spelling in your post until this second. "Yucca" is a different animal.
Wait a minute...Is "yucca" and "yuca" being used interchangeably here? In Latin countries, the correct selling is yuca...one "c."
I always wondered how people first discovered the safe way to eat lobster.
Fox news got a little bit confused: The plant contains cyanogenic glucoside, which releases cyanide when "disturbed". It takes 150° or 3 days (I believe) to complete the reaction that releases the cyanide.
Nobody eats this. The yuca your mama serves with roast pork is a completely different plant.
SUMMARY
Cassava and bamboo shoots, grown primarily in the tropics, contain potentially toxic compounds called cyanogenic glycosides, linamarin and taxiphillin respectively, which break down upon disruption of the plant cells to form hydrogen cyanide. The toxicity of cyanogenic glycosides can be reduced by appropriate preparation of the plant material prior to consumption as food. Traditional uses of cassava and bamboo shoots as food are dependent on adequate processing prior to human consumption. If either cassava or bamboo shoots are eaten either raw or after inadequate processing, evidence of toxicity may be observed.
For cassava, peeling and slicing disrupts the cell structure of the plant, with subsequent liberation of hydrogen cyanide. Hydrogen cyanide can be removed by further processing such as cooking (baking, boiling, or roasting) or fermentation. For bamboo shoots, slicing into thin strips liberates hydrogen cyanide, which is removed by boiling.
Cyanogenic glycoside content of cassava and bamboo shoots There are a number of varieties of cassava, each of which has a different cyanide level. Values from 15-400 mg/kg fresh weight of hydrogen cyanide in cassava roots have been reported in the literature. Sweet varieties of cassava (low cyanide content) will typically contain approximately 15-50 mg/kg hydrogen cyanide on a fresh weight basis. Sweet varieties of cassava can be processed adequately by peeling and cooking (e.g. roasting, baking or boiling), whereas bitter varieties of cassava (high cyanide content) require more extensive processing, involving techniques such as heap fermentation which take several days. Bitter varieties are not normally commercially traded.
There are approximately 1200 species of bamboo, although only a small number are used as food. Bamboo shoots may contain as much as 1000 mg/kg hydrogen cyanide, significantly higher than the amounts detected in cassava tubers, however, the cyanide content is reported to decrease substantially following harvesting. The bamboo shoots sold commercially as food can be processed adequately by boiling before consumption. The process of canning bamboo shoots liberates and adequately removes hydrogen cyanide.
So, yuca with one c is manioc, or cassava, but yucca with two c's is the one in my yard. That's right! Kinda like a bare bear drinking a beer?
No offense was intended.
Ricin? Strychnine? Any guesses, G?
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