ABSTRACT
The fermentation of food raw materials offers numerous benefits, several of which are vital for survival and safe nutrition of populations in traditional communities. The frequency of bacteriocinogenic lactic acid bacteria in African fermented foods appears to lie within the same range. The most important benefits of fermented foods are in several ways related to the gastrointestinal tract and our well-being, and are associated with lactic fermentations. Lactic acid fermentation is probably the oldest and best accepted among the African peoples, and is largely a home-based process throughout the African continent. A pure lactic-fermented maize gruel that is well known and appreciated throughout Southern Africa is mahewu. In Africa, cassava is the major root crop processed by lactic fermentation, providing a wide range of safe products such as gari, fufu, and lafun or kokonte, common throughout West Africa, and kivunde and cingwada in East Africa.
