Advancing the Nutritional and Functional Quality of Cassava Flour through Emerging Pretreatments and Processing Innovations

Cassava flour, a gluten-free staple in tropical diets, faces key challenges related to cyanogenic glycosides, starch digestibility, and variable functionality. This review systematically synthesizes two decades of Scopus literature under the PRISMA framework to evaluate how physical, chemical, biological, and emerging clean-label pretreatments improve its nutritional and functional quality. Findings show that physical and biological methods effectively reduce hydrogen cyanide to Codex-safe limits, while heat–moisture treatment and enzymatic debranching enhance resistant starch formation and lower glycaemic potential. Improvements in water absorption, pasting stability, and microstructure support broader bakery and noodle applications. Emerging technologies including plasma, ozone, and ultrasound offer detoxification and flavour benefits but face cost and scalability constraints. Persistent gaps include cultivar variability, limited analytical consistency, and scarce sensory or storage data. Integrated pretreatment strategies can thus transform cassava flour into a safe, nutritionally improved, and functionally stable ingredient for global gluten-free markets.