15 July: Tapioca pudding day

It's Tapioca pudding day. 10 things you didn't know about tapioca.

1. Tapioca comes from the root of the cassava plant (Manihot esculenta). Cassava is a perennial shrub native to Brazil, which was carried by Portuguese and Spanish colonisers to most of the West Indies and Africa and Asia.
2. It’s not the same thing as cassava flour. The flour is the ground up root while tapioca is a starchy liquid which is extracted from the root.
3. The name tapioca is derived from the Tupí language of South America. They used the word tipi’óka for the cassava starch. The word means 'sediment' or 'coagulant'.
4. On the plus side, cassava copes better with poor soils than many other food plants, so it’s easy to grow. It’s is easily propagated by stem-cutting and can be harvested every two months. During World War II, due to the shortage of food in Southeast Asia, many refugees survived on tapioca.
5. On the minus side, it is basically starch and contains virtually no nutrients other than carbohydrate. So it can provide energy, but it’s not something to live exclusively on long term.
6. It’s gluten free, though, and can be used as a substitute for wheat flour.
7. Tapioca is produced by squeezing the liquid out of ground tapioca root. The resulting goo is left to dry out, leaving behind a fine powder which can be processed into the preferred shape for sale, usually flakes, sticks or pearls. Before eating, the tapioca must be rehydrated. It can double in size when Water is added.
8. The country which is the biggest producer of Tapioca is Thailand, which accounts for about 60% of worldwide exports. Brazil and Nigeria are also big Tapioca producers.
9. The UK savoury snack Skips is made from flavoured tapioca.
10. There are other uses for tapioca besides eating it, or using it as a thickening agent. It can be used to starch fabrics before ironing, and the resin of the plant can be used to make biodegradable bags as an alternative to plastic.

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