ABSTRACT
Traditional fermented foods are an important part of the diet in Africa. Although these have been in existence for centuries, scientifi c knowledge about them was available only in the latter part of the twentieth century. These foods were as important centuries ago as they are today. Some of the well-known ones include gari, a cassava-based product; ogi, a corn-based product from Nigeria; and mahewu, another corn-based product from South Africa. Much of the developments have been concentrated on the processing technology including the machinery for producing these foods (Olasupo et al. 2010).
