Cassava Root Flour

They come from the same plant. Tapioca is the starch taken from the cassava root, while cassava root flour is the whole root dried and ground, so it keeps a little more fiber.

Cassava root flour is the dried, ground root of the cassava plant, and it is mostly starch. Tufts veterinary nutritionists say cats can digest and metabolize properly cooked carbohydrates, though adult cats have no specific need for carbohydrate in their diet. Cassava is not a grain, so it shows up in grain-free recipes. Ask your veterinarian before changing food for a cat with a medical condition.

Source: sites.tufts.edu

Cassava root flour gives grain-free kibble the starch it needs to bind and hold its shape, in place of rice, corn or wheat. Pettings notes that it keeps a little more fiber than refined tapioca starch because more of the root goes into it. Grain-free does not mean low in carbohydrate, and a food built on cassava can carry as much starch as one with grain.

No. Cassava is a starchy root grown in tropical regions, so foods made with cassava root flour can be labeled grain-free. In cat food it fills the same role that potatoes or sweet potatoes do, as a starch source that binds the kibble. Once dried and ground, it is mostly carbohydrate with little protein.

Raw cassava root contains natural compounds called cyanogenic glycosides, which can release cyanide. Peeling, soaking, drying and cooking remove most of them, and cassava flour sold as a food ingredient has been processed this way. The cassava root flour in a commercial cat food is a processed ingredient that is cooked again when the kibble is made.

Pettings gives cassava root flour 1 out of 5 and lists it as a starch or refined grain. It appears on 3 of the 149 dry cat foods we list. That score rates the ingredient by itself, and each food's page shows how the full recipe scores overall.