After about two months of investigation on Fufu
processing in Ifo and Arigbajo areas of Ogun State, KUNLE AKINRINADE, in
this report, reveals how unscrupulous operators of Fufu processing
centres indulge in the use of harmful substances to produce the popular
staple food.FEMI Adenaike’s day is never complete without his favourite local dish- Fufu( a starchy paste made from cassava) and Okro soup. The 43-year-old Lagos-based marketing communication practitioner relishes the delicacy more than any other meal. As usual, on Wednesday April 9, Adenaike stepped out of his office in Ikeja and went to a downtown restaurant in the Ipodo area of Ikeja to enjoy the meal. With an infectious poise, he cut the Fufu into bite size pieces with which he dragged the thick broth out of the bowl of soup into his mouth. And in-between the meal, he revealed his love for the delicacy and what attracted him to the restaurant tucked behind a shopping mall.
“Oh, I love Fufu and okro soup. It’s the reason I come to this restaurant every afternoon on work days. I am so sure I would get what I want here instead of visiting posh eateries where only pizzas are sold. The people here know how to prepare the delicacy; they are neat and they prepare their food in a hygienic environment.”
While Adenaike might be so sure of the hygienic preparation of Fufu sold at his favourite downtown restaurant, he may not be aware of its processing from cassava roots into cooked paste at various open processing centres scattered around Ifo, Arigbajo and environs in Ogun State — the hub of producers servicing Lagos markets and Fufu sellers.
Fufu production in these two communities is anything but hygienic for consumption due to unhealthy practices arising from chemical and microbiological contamination of the product, including harmful compounds such as bleach, detergents and potash to soften soaked cassava roots.
Locally, in South West part of the country, the fermented wet-paste is made by cut- peeling or steeping cassava roots in water to ferment for a maximum of four days, depending on air temperature.
While the steeping lasts, the roots soften due to the effect of fermentation which helps to reduce toxic chemical substances. When it is satisfactorily soft, the roots are removed by hand, and sieved to remove the fibers. The starchy filtrate and sediments are discarded and discharged and the sieved cassava roots are then packed in polyethylene fiber sacks and allowed to drain. This method is quite different from the processing method in vogue in the South East and Niger Delta areas of the country, where the cassava roots are grated after three days of fermentation.
Backstreet processing centre
Welcome to Ifo, an ancient community founded in the 18th century by the Egba people of Abeokuta. Here, countless nameless processing centres operated by women produce Fufu wet cakes, using crude and crooked methods to soften cassava roots. At one of such centres visited by our reporter, who disguised as a post-graduate research student of food production in a certain popular university at about 5pm on April Tuesday April 9, 2019, the operator of the processing facility, Madam Adijat Sanusi(not real name), gave a cold reception demanding to see his identity card bearing his details. Satisfied, the woman sent for a sofa and much later agreed to take the reporter through the processes the next day.
“As you can see, my workers are rounding off their tasks in order to go home; they have done a lot today.
“I’ll advise you come back tomorrow morning. You can only be taken through the rudiments of production if you resume with us as early as 7 am,” Adijat, who is in her early 60s and of average height, said with a deep Egba accent.
The processing centre is located in an open place by the side of the street at the back of Ifo market. The street is strewn with water-logged potholes. The floor of the centre is marshy and a collector drainage located by its side with goats and sheep straying into the production area unhindered and leaving their faeces there. A makeshift sitting area is adjacent the sieving unit.
At the centre, there were several blue plastic containers which serve as fermenting vats on the marshy floor, many contained soaked cassava, while some were empty. A few workers there were seen removing lumps from softened cassava roots inside big baskets with concrete floor wAhich served as sieving basin. They left few minutes after our reporter arrived.
Adijat, a widow, said she had been in the business for over 20 years and it’s from the money she made from the business she was able to see her children through the studies in the higher institutions of learning.
“I started this business shortly after I lost my husband. I started small and I have steadily grown in the business with increased patronage from customers most of whom come from various parts of Lagos State.
“Although, people see those of us in this kind of business as ‘local’ but we are not. We have the technical-how to produce not only Fufu but other derivatives such as starch and tapioca, a beverage highly patronised by people. We are taking delivery of cassava tomorrow to complement what we have already in preparation for Ifo market day in few days’ time,” she said as the reporter bade her a goodnight at about 6.15 pm.
Day two at processing centre
The next day, Wednesday April 10, the reporter, who passed the night in the home of one of his sources in the area, arrived the processing centre at 6.45 am and met a couple of workers on ground. Shortly after 7 am, Madam Adijat arrived and gave tasks to the workers. There were different categories of workers-water-fetchers, peelers, washers, sievers and loaders.
About 8.15 am, a Nissan pickup van loaded with cassava arrived with some men atop, who discharged the produce and left 30 minutes later. Immediately, the peelers picked up their baskets and started peeling the cassava. Their fee, according to a source, is not less than N200 per basket depending on the size of their basket.
Done with allocating work schedule to the workers numbering 30, Madam Adijat motioned to the reporter. “Akowe (the learned), please come over.”
“Like I told you yesterday, we start work as early as 7 am. The delay today is due to the delivery of our new consignment of cassava, which was behind schedule. Usually we get our supply as early as 7 am, but they arrived one hour behind schedule today.”
The woman first introduced the reporter to her workers, calling for their cooperation to divulge how they perform their duties as she took the reporter round the processing centre while explaining the various stages of the production of Fufu.
“The first stage of production is peeling of cassava. That is what we have started now; you can see that some women are busy cut-peeling the cassava, which would be thoroughly washed by another set of women before they are loaded into plastic containers you are seeing over there for soaking and softening.
“The soaking lasts between four to five days to gain fermentation that would soften the soaked cassava, which would make it easy to sieve it into Fufu cakes. We soaked those ones being sieved some days ago and we would finish with them today because Ifo market day will come up a day after tomorrow.
“Are there unnatural ways of softening the soaked cassava, like using chemical substance?” the reporter asked Adijat.
“No, we don’t use any chemical to achieve softening of cassava,” the woman replied.
After taking the reporter round the facility, she retired to the makeshift to eat a meal of rice and stew packed in a food flask, which she brought from her home.”
The production continued as every worker performed their duties with seriousness. The reporter moved to the sieving units to observe how the task is done and engaged the workers there. Workers at the unit were seen talking and breaking sweats which dropped into the sieving basket full of Fufu cakes.
At lunch break around 2pm, a source at the unit later confirmed in confidence that Madam Adijat actually uses chemical to soak cassava so as to soften soaked cassava.
“Mama cannot tell you the truth. It’s a guarded secret and she does not joke with it. Ordinarily, it takes about four or three days to get soft cassava for sieving after soaking. But if the cassava are too strong because they are not harvested the same day they are delivered to us, which is the case today, it may be difficult to soften them and the only alternative is the use of chemical, which Mama will use today.
“Let me tell you this, she does not add the chemical in our presence. She does it at nightfall, say around 7 pm, after the close of work when all workers here must have left. I have seen her do it twice when I hanged around to honour an appointment with my boyfriend who lives in this area. Since the day, I have stopped eating Fufu. If you can hang around till nightfall, she will add the chemical – a bleach made in Lagos to the soaked cassava,” said the source.
By 4 pm, the peelers were done with cut-peeling the cassava; the washers quickly hurried up with their task and by 5pm, they were loaded into the plastic containers for soaking. The workers later proceeded to where Madam Adijat was seated to receive their wages.
“I noticed that you were taking notes as you went round the production units. I hope you got additional information apart from the one I told you about Fufu production. If there’s any of the processes you don’t understand, please feel free to ask before you take your leave,” Madam Adijat asked the reporter.
“There’s nothing more to ask ma, I just want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to see for myself the traditional processes involved in Fufu production,” the reporter said as he took his leave at about 6 pm.
While everyone had left, Madam Adijat, who was being monitored from a distance by our reporter, stayed back at the processing centre. By 7.30 pm, she reached for a small black polythene bag kept behind a row of water-proof sacks and brought out sachets of a popular bleach produced by a Lagos-based firm and emptied no fewer than 10 sachets of the bleach into each of the 20 blue plastic containers where peeled cassava were soaked for fermentation. She returned the empty sachets of the bleach into the polythene bag and left after she washed her hands with soap.
Other processing centres
About two streets away from Adijat’s processing centre is another Fufu processing outlet operated by a woman, identified simply as Iyabo. Slim built with a round face and bulging eyes, she yelled at workers when the reporter visited on May 8 in the afternoon.
“Oh, welcome gentleman,” she said after the reporter introduced himself as a post-graduate student of Food Science from a private university based in Lagos State.
“I will take you through our operating lines and technics of Fufu processing. I hope that you will one day establish a modern processing factory,” she added.
The processing centre, swathed by bushes, is a makeshift structure sited on a river bank joined by a windy collector drainage with foul odour. Like Adijat’s, domestic animals, including dogs, chickens and goats roamed and strayed into the centre as workers made frantic efforts to chase them away.
Blue plastic containers serving as fermenting vats with soaked cassava roots were placed in the frontage overlooking the bank of the river, a tiny foot path leads to a wooden bridge to the hilly processing centre. Three ladies buried their heads in large size baskets used for sieving cassava roots profusely sweating as they carried on with their tasks, while their sweats dropped intermittently into the submerged cassava roots being sieved.
Unlike Adijat, Iyabo said she ventured into the business about 15 years ago after she lost her job as head teacher in a private school in Abeokuta.
“If anyone had told me that I would end up in this kind of business, I would have described such remarks as rubbish. But here I am today doing well and making money for myself contrary to my life as a senior teacher with meagre salary.
“From this business, I have built two houses and support my children’s education in the university. I do not know any other business that I could have done to make money than the Fufu processor. Sometimes, the endeavour we scorn as being dirty and unfit for our status might be a very good source of making a fortune.”
Asked if she uses chemical substance in processing her Fufu, she hesitated before responding: “Unnhm, I don’t do such thing. I deploy traditional processing methods to soak and ferment cassava roots”.
At about 1pm, the Ijebu Ode born entrepreneur dashed out to honour an appointment with one of her business partners. ”I will be back shortly”, she said.
But her denying the use of unwholesome substance in Fufu processing would was later disputed by one of her workers, who spoke in confidence to the reporter.
The worker, who claimed to have worked long enough at the nameless firm to know the secret of the business, said her boss indulges in the use of a popular brand of detergent to quicken thefermentation of soaked cassava roots.
“She (Iyabo) knows the implication of divulging such information to people. The truth is that nearly every Fufu processor uses all kinds of chemicals to process Fufu in Ifo and Arigbajo and my boss is one of them.
“There’s a particular brand of detergent she pours into fermenting containers where cassava roots are soaked over there. She would do exactly the same today after the cassava being peeled must have been soaked. All workers would have left by the time she adds the detergent to the fermenting containers at nightfall. You just hang around till that time and you’ll confirm that she was lying by saying she doesn’t use chemicals to aid processing.”
Iyabo returned about 3pm and took the reporter round the processing centre, mentioning every stage of the production similar to what obtains at Adijat’s processing centre.
Two hours later, the reporter left the place, but stayed around to watch if the woman would do exactly as her worker had revealed. The reporter watched from a distance at a makeshift restaurant close to the place as workers at the centre closed for the day after they were handed their pay.
When it was getting dark, the woman quietly took medium size sachets of a popular detergent (name withheld) and turned the content into the fermentation containers of soaked cassava. About 10 of such were emptied into 10 fermenting plastic vats. She left the place 15 minutes later.
At Arigbajo, another community with a popular market noted for production and sale of Fufu, the undercover tactic of the reporter on May 22 did not yield anything different from the Ifo processors. In the community, a woman of Yewa stock, Kuburat (not real name), runs a processing firm. Typical of such facility, there’s no name to it and the processing centre built close to an erosion ravaged terrain is anything but hygienic.
Plastic containers used for fermentation were placed at the side of the ramshackle structure where large size baskets were used for sieving lumps from cassava roots. With introduction over, the woman demanded money before she could ‘teach’ the reporter rudiments of Fufu production which, in her words, “might be too technical and time consuming for you to grab.”
“You must have been given money to come here; so you have to pay me before I would teach you. Don’t you know that apprentices pay their boss to acquire skills,?” she said.
“I’ll teach what you can never learn in the university because this is the traditional method of Fufu production.”
Her processing unit is a small one compared to the two earlier mentioned above. She had fewer workers who were seen peeling cassava roots, while others sieved the fermented roots to get Fufu wet cakes.
She conducted the reporter round her ‘factory’ and explained the processes involved before settling down on a sofa.
“Let’s wait for the peelers to finish their job so we can load the cassava roots into the fermenting plastic containers over there and I will show you what we do to ensure the cassava roots soaked get fermented.” By 4pm, the peeled cassava roots had been soaked inside the plastic containers numbering seven for fermentation. Kuburat, who claimed to have been separated from her husband after she was subjected to persistent brutality, led the reporter to where the containers were placed, where she explained that the containers are usually placed in the open to allow for air temperature to aid fermentation.
She, however, explained that the required temperature can be difficult to get if the whether conditions change, especially if the cassava roots are too strong.
“There may not be enough air to ferment stronger cassava roots, especially if they are not supplied to us the day they are harvested. This was what happened today when the cassava roots we had just soaked were harvested two days ago and they are too strong”.
Although she denied using any chemical or unwholesome substance to process the food staple, one of her lieutenants, who asked not to be mentioned, confided in the reporter that Kuburat was fond of using potash (kaun) to accelerate fermentation.
“You are a nice person and I will tell you the truth. Madam uses kaun (potash) to ferment cassava roots soaked in those plastic containers.”
“That’s our family house overlooking this place. If you are not in a hurry, by 7 pm when workers would have gone home, you will see her with a small plastic containing a lot of potash which she would drop into the containers”.
Exactly at 7.15, Kuburat brought out a plastic bowl containing potash and dripped the chemical substance into a row of fermenting plastic where cassava roots were soaked, while the reporter who could not take photographs in order not to be exposed and his source, watched.
How market demand aids unscrupulous practice
Sources revealed that the practice is gaining ground among Fufu processors because of the huge demand for the food staple in Lagos State.
The resort to the use of chemicals is to prevent loss of customers by processors should they fail to supply their customers on market days. They resort to using chemicals to quicken the process at the detriment of consumers’ health.
“Nearly 70 per cent of Fufu processors in Ifo and Arigbajo axis indulge in the use of bleach, detergent and other harmful substances to process the staple food. Those who don’t indulge in the unhealthy processing are those from remote villages and their contribution to the market is of less significance in terms of supply.
“The development is caused by the huge demand for Fufu in the cities, especially Lagos. As you know, Fufu is ranked next to garri in terms of consumption by people and the need to retain their customers and constantly meet up with demand in Ifo and Arigbajo markets forced some processors to engage in unwholesome production of the staple food using chemicals. So, if the market days close by and they are faced with the reality that they might not be able to meet up with their customers’ demand, instead of waiting for four or five days to have their soaked cassava fermented, they would quicken it within two days in order to hit the market the third day,” said a source at the popular Fufu market in Ifo.
For people like Adenaike, this might just be an eye opener to the possibility that they may have been unknowingly consuming the food staple emanating from some of the numerous processing centres at the expense of their health.
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