African cereal-based fermented foods: Microbiota, functional microorganisms, starter cultures and nutritional properties

Abstract

Cereals are an important part of staple foods all over the world, and their fermentation is an age-old technique to obtain desired food products. Cereal-based foods have been widely consumed for thousands of years as a major source of nutrients, particularly in developing and overpopulated countries, and in Africa they represent a major source of nutrients and energy. Thus, the main aim of this review is a focus on cereal-based and fermented foods from Africa, with a special emphasis on the most important keywords and topics of the literature, microbiota, as well as on the nutritional side, to provide evidence on the importance of these products as sources of functional microorganisms, and/or starter cultures.