ABSTRACT

African countries require food processing technologies that will meet the challenges of the peculiar food security problem in the continent (1). Such technologies however, should be low cost to be affordable by the poor majority of the continent and should be the type that can address the perennial problems of food spoilage and food borne diseases, which are prevalent in the environment. Fermentation is one important food processing technology that meets these challenges. Fermentation is not new to the African countries, as most of the traditional foods in the community are fermented before consumption (2). The process of fermentation has been used in the preparation of many traditional foods in the countries of Africa for centuries. Fermentation as a means of improving the keeping quality of food has been used for more than 6000 years (3). Probably no other process has had such an impact on the nutrition habits and food culture of mankind. Fermentation performs a number of functions which assist the overall improvement of food quality and safety. First and foremost however, it serves to improve the shelf life and safety of foods and enables people in the moderate and cooler regions to survive winter seasons and drought periods. Moreover, it can be assumed that, because safe drinking water supplies were not always available in densely populated areas, fermented beverages with an extended shelf life, such as beer and wine (4), served as safe sources for consumption.