Hello!
Have you ever faced the problem of finishing your tea before the pearls and having to suck them up individually while avoiding the ice cubes? Well, that happens to me all the time (anyone has any tips?) and so that day while I was struggling to finish my tapioca pearls, I started to wonder if these pearls had any environmental impacts at all.
Tapioca pearls are my favourite bubble tea topping! Just think about all those glistening chewy tapioca pearls swimming in cups of creamy luscious tea… mmm time to get my bubble tea fix! Bubble tea certainly wouldn’t be bubble tea without tapioca pearls, but before we jump into the environmental impacts of tapioca pearls, let’s know more about this topping first.
Chewy Tapioca Pearls!
Bubble tea first originated in Taiwan and the Taiwanese call this topping “珍珠” which translates to “pearls”. These “pearls” are made from tapioca starch, hence the name “tapioca pearls”! With the global spread of bubble tea, tapioca pearls have picked up names like “boba”, “bubble” and “QQ” in different countries. Taking the local context into account, I will be referring to them as “tapioca pearls” in my blog posts.
Now then, where does tapioca starch come from? Tapioca starch is extracted from the cassava root which is also known as tapioca or manioc, and you can find cassava in your desserts and chips as well!
However, as with most industrial processes, the extraction of starch from cassava isn’t environmentally friendly at all.
To obtain starch from cassava, the cassava is first washed, peeled and ground to release starch from its pulp. The starch is then dried to give us the final product of starch flour that goes into the making of our tapioca pearls! However, as water is used as the extraction medium, this results in HUGE amounts of water being used in the entire process.
Furthermore, cyanide released from the grinding of cassava and sulfur that is added to bleach the starch makes the effluent toxic, and this ends up in the soil and nearby water bodies because of haphazard disposal, killing plants and animals!
As such, starch extraction not only has a HUGE water footprint, it also pollutes the environment. And with every bubble tea that we order with tapioca pearls, we are perpetuating the growth of the cassava industry and its harmful impacts on the environment. ☹
My Thoughts
This information came as a shock to me because I’ve never thought about how tapioca pearls were made, lest the environmental impacts of tapioca pearl production! You’ll probably find this shocking too, but may feel indifferent about it because it seems like a problem so far away from Singapore! Furthermore, local governments should be the ones solving the problems associated with starch production, so what does this have to do with us as consumers in Singapore? Is our consumption of tapioca pearls really big enough to have any impact on the cassava industry at all?
Fret not, because these are questions I’m pondering over as well! To gain some insight, I’ll be conducting a survey to find out more about the consumption of bubble tea in Singapore and how it may be aggravating the tapioca pearl problem. Stay tuned for more shocking truths to be revealed in the next post!
References:
Sriroth et al. (2000). Cassava Starch Technology: The Thai Experience. Starch – Stärke, Volume 52, Issue 12, 439-449. Retrieved 11 September, 2020, from https://doi.org/10.1002/1521-379X(200012)52:12<439::AID-STAR439>3.0.CO;2-E
Phairat Usubharatana, & HarnponPhungrassami. (2015). Carbon Footprint of Cassava Starch Production in North-Eastern Thailand. Procedia CIRP 29, 462-467. Retrieved 11 September, 2020, from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2015.02.031
Bengt-Erik Bengtsson, & Tran Triet. (1994). Tapioca-Starch Wastewater Toxicity Characterized by Microtox and Duckweed Tests. Ambio, 23(8), 473-477. Retrieved September 11, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4314263
Hey Yee Qi!
Thanks for sharing this post. I didn’t know actually that the pearls in the bubble tea come from flour which is made from cassava extraction. And because of that, many toxins leeched out that goes untreated into the water bodies.
But, are there any developing solutions that the toxins in the wastewater gets treated or basically they are going to purely give ignorance or negligence about this environmental issue?
Hello Wee Meng!
Thanks for asking if there are current solutions to treat the wastewater produced, I’m happy to share this document from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations which lists the current solutions available that tackle this problem. Actually, on top of the wastewater produced, there’s also a lot of solid waste that results from the extraction of starch from cassava.
On the topic of wastewater, two relevant methods listed in the document are reuse for irrigation and anaerobic digesters. However, most solutions aren’t perfect and so are these two solutions. The downside to reusing the wastewater for irrigation is that this doesn’t remove the toxic chemicals at all, instead, the wastewater is diluted up to 20x so that it is safe for use. However, this will ultimately lead to the gradual degradation of the soil nearby and really isn’t much of a solution in my perspective and instead, merely seems to be buying time.
For anaerobic digesters, they come in a few forms and treat the toxic chemicals in the wastewater which is great – except that there is high cost involved due to the setting up of the machinery required. This economic cost is a great price to pay, considering that the top cassava starch producers in the world comprise mostly developing countries like Brazil, Thailand and Madagascar. As such, this solution is very feasible because a lot of these small and medium-scale production factories cannot afford the high cost of treating the toxic chemicals.
Better government regulation and subsidies would definitely help to alleviate the financial burdens of treating the wastewater, but I’m afraid this ultimately boils down to how much the government wants to intervene and help these producers and developing countries are generally known to have a greater focus on economic growth than environmental protection. For now, greater emphasis should be placed on research in wastewater treatment to develop cheaper solutions. In the meantime, perhaps greater awareness of and advocacy for this issue will help to spur government action!
Hi Yee Qi! This was such an eye-opening read because who would have thought that the pearls could have so much impact on us, both in terms of the environment and our health (which clearly goes beyond the effects of consuming too much sugar or caffeine)? Fun fact, I’m don’t drink bubble tea with pearls, but even so, this post caught my attention because I wanted to find out more about the one ingredient in bubble tea that people swear by.
However, it seems like alternatives have been popping up and have been gaining lots of traction too, such as the pink cactus pearls from Playmade! I’m curious to know what you think of these alternatives (which may or may not be less harmful to the environment in more ways than one, since these pink cactus pearls are native to Taiwan and would probably need to be imported) and whether the environmental impacts of the ingredients could possibly provide some form of competitive advantage (in a good way as it’s for a good cause), especially with the growing attention towards sustainability now!
In the meantime, looking forward to the rest of your blog and have a great one ahead!
Hello Natasha!
I’m so glad this post gave you some insight on how bubble tea could impact our environment, specifically tapioca pearls! Thank you for bringing up alternatives like pink cactus pearls, I did a quick Google search and these pearls are quite unique to Playmade, which has a large variety of pearl flavours. I tried to research more about it but sadly, Playmade doesn’t provide much information on what is used to make their pearls, however I did find a video (thank you Xia Xue for interviewing Playmade!) which you can take a look at here!
In the video, it says that they use pearl powder, tapioca flour and pick cactus juice, which is imported from Penghu, Taiwan. I’m not so sure what comprises pearl powder and Google doesn’t provide much help on that either, but for the tapioca flour (tapioca starch), it is used quite minimally – to prevent the pearl dough from sticking to the sides! For the pearl powder, my guess is that it’s likely to still contain tapioca starch which is known to give pearls their chewiness, hence until I’m able to confirm the components of pearl powder, I will assume that the pink cactus pearls aren’t necessarily better than tapioca pearls in terms of their environmental impacts!
Great reply to Natasha’s interesting Q ! Also, could I just add that I have a food phobia of the boba too. Although it would never have occurred to me to order my boba tea without them – so I’m also wondering what kind of reaction Natasha gets when she does that.
Hi Yee Qi!
Thanks for the interesting read! As a bubble tea addict myself, I thought that the only environmental impact of bubble tea was the amount of plastic involved (cups, straws, plastic bags etc.), I never knew that even the ingredients of bubble tea have negative environmental impacts. Seeing how pearls are quite an essential component of bubble tea, I’m curious to know whether there are currently any environmentally friendly alternatives to tapioca pearls? Thank you and I will definitely be looking forward to your next post! 🙂
Hello Christabel!
Thank you for raising this question of whether there are environmentally friendly alternatives! Being an avid tapioca pearl fan, I also thought about some alternatives to my favourite bubble tea topping I could opt for instead. Previously, Natasha asked about pink cactus pearls as alternatives to tapioca pearls! However, I think these pearls are quite similar to tapioca pearls and hence, they aren’t necessarily better for the environment. You can check out a more detailed explanation that I provided in my response to her comment above!
The first alternative that came to mind would be white pearls! Personally, I’ll always order white pearls with fruity drinks in place of tapioca pearls that I’ll order with milk tea. White pearls aren’t made from tapioca starch and instead, are made from konjac jelly, hence its gelatinous texture compared to the soft and chewy texture of tapioca pearls! Konjac is also known as elephant yam, and can be processed to produce konjac flour, konjac gum and konjac glucomannan, which actually constitutes 60-80% of the konjac root. As to how white pearls are produced, Google currently doesn’t give me much information on that so I’m unable to evaluate if these pearls are indeed, better alternatives to tapioca pearls.
Other than white pearls, there are always other toppings like aloe vera, herbal jelly and pudding, but I’ll definitely need to read up more about those before I can say if these are better for the environment. Though I wouldn’t see these as substitutes for tapioca pearls due to their differences, they definitely make great bubble topping options so perhaps you could try these out instead of always getting tapioca pearls!
Never knew tapioca contained toxins, guess the pearls really are a guilty pleasure. Thanks for letting us know about it Yee Qi!
I have to ask though, do the toxins become a threat only after the starch extraction process? I assumed that cooking tapioca, without any extra safety precautions aside from washing, makes it safe to eat. Are people actually eating trace amounts of toxin?
Hello Justin!
Thank you for your question on the toxins found in cassava! To clarify, cassava contains cyanogenic glycosides that are actually not toxic, but undergo hydrolysis to produce toxic hydrocyanic acid (HCN). The action of grinding triggers the hydrolysis of these cyanogenic glycosides by a protein called linamarase that is also present in the plant cells. As such, you are right to say that these toxins are released as a result of the starch extraction process, specifically the grinding process. This means that even the chewing of cassava during consumption also releases these toxins, and this is how the cassava plant actually deters predators from feeding on it!
Considering how cassava can be consumed in so many ways (cassava chips and tapioca desserts come to mind!), thank you for raising this important question of whether current cooking methods of cassava make them safe for consumption. I’m glad to share that these cassava products are indeed safe for consumption and we can continue to enjoy them!
The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations report that boiling the cassava before consumption actually removes 90% of free cyanide, 55% of cyanogenic glycosides (which the article states as “bound cyanide”) and denatures linamarase! The denaturation of linamarase due to high heat thereby prevents the hydrolysis of residual cyanogenic glycosides in the cassava to produce toxic HCN.
Since only HCN is toxic and residual cyanogenic glycosides are at safe levels, consumption of boiled cassava will not pose health risks! If you’re interested, you can check out the link above to find out more about the different types of ways cassava is handled and processed to reduce cyanide levels to safe thresholds!