Anais do Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciências de Alimentos
Anais do 14 SLACA - Simpósio Latino Americano de Ciência de Alimentos

Tapioca flour is one of the foods obtained from the processing of cassava starch, traditionally used in Brazilian regional cuisines. Its energy value is in the order of 240 Kcal (1,008 J)/100 g, with 60g/100g of carbohydrates and absence of proteins, especially gluten, fats, dietary fiber and sodium, being thus also valued for its nutritional properties. The present work sought to characterize the current gastronomic uses of tapioca flour in Brazilian gastronomy, its forms of acquisition and to present the potential areas for new culinary uses. As for its methodological aspects, it is a descriptive, bibliographical and field research, with extensive direct observation, with questionnaires via Google Form, applied between March and August 2021, to 211 professionals of Gastronomy and Nutrition, in 15 Brazilian states and 2 countries (Portugal and France), and the results are then tabulated in an Excel spreadsheet, as tables and graphs. Thus, the study identified that 96.21% of respondents used tapioca flour in their professional practices and surveyed 60 different types of preparations, especially cakes (42.18%), beijus (36.02%), couscous (24 .17%), porridge (19.91%), crepioca (17.06%) and tapioca (16.59%). As purchase locations, supermarkets (70.62%) predominated, followed by fairs (50.71%), rural producers (16.59%), own suppliers (9.00%) and in-house preparation (3.79% ). The types of tapioca flour used were: fine (65.88%), granulated (54.02%) and in flakes (31.28%). As for the areas of Gastronomy as potential for new uses of tapioca flour, hot cooking (82.46%) stood out, followed by confectionery, baking (54.98% each) and cold cooking (40.28%) . Therefore, tapioca flour presented itself as a food with wide gastronomic use, relevant culinary versatility and important nutritional value, needing greater incentive for its acquisition from family farmers and better use of its potential for gastronomic use.