The purpose of this work was to evaluate the quality of the raw and toasted cashew nuts, identifying the changes that took place during the toasting process. The raw and toasted cashew nut showed pH near neutrality. The chemical composition of the raw cashew nut showed the following values: moisture - 5,05 %; ash - 2,40 %; protein - 22,11 %; lipids - 46,28 %; total sugar - 7,93 % and starch - 16,07 %. The toasted nut results were: moisture - 1,18 %; ash - 2,43 %; protein - 21,76 %; lipids - 48,35 %; total sugar - 8,23 % and starch - 17,30 %. The comparison of these values were significantly different for the levels of lipids, total sugars and starch, possibly due to the loss of water, during the toasting process, since when they were compared on dry matter basis, the results did not present differences.
cashew nut; chemical composition; physical-chemical characterization
