ABSTRACT
Antinutritional factors (ANFs) are natural constituents of foods, mainly of vegetal origin, such as legumes, seeds, and grains that may have health benefits at low concentrations, or deleterious effects at higher concentrations. Protease inhibitors, lectins, saponins, tannins, and phytates, are examples of ANFs that can be reduced by adequate food processing. Over time, advances in food engineering technology have boosted the techniques and strategies of food processing to improve quality, nutritional value, and ANFs reduction on foods. Strategies based on hydrothermal, physical, and enzymatic food pre-treatment expanded the industrial processing possibilities for ANF reduction and boosted the research about this theme. The enzymatic methods of ANFs reduction in food receive attention due to the necessity of offering to the consumers food of better quality, process efficiency, the mild reaction conditions of the enzymatic processes, and the specificity of action. Furthermore, enzyme-mediated processes are also observed in the digestive tract and are relevant to the ANF reduction in the body. Therefore, this chapter approaches the definition of ANFs and discusses strategies of ANF reduction in food processed by non-enzymatic and enzymatic methods associated with industrial and digestive enzymes.
