Influences of four processing methods on main nutritional components of foxtail millet: A review

Foxtail millet, originated from China and now cultivated worldwide, is a kind of high dietary fiber whole grain food, and has a high level of vitamins and proteins. Furthermore, foxtail millet has many positive effects on the adjuvant treatment of diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases because of the abundance in polyphenols. Nonetheless, foxtail millet has poor processing characteristics due to the absence of gluten, restricting the development of foxtail millet products. Studies have demonstrated that heat-moisture treatment, extrusion, superfine grinding, and microbial fermentation are promising methods to improve the processing qualities of foxtail millet. Heat-moisture treatment is helpful to increase the content of resistant starch but has less influence on other components, further reduce the GI value of foxtail millet. The extrusion has positive effects on improving the solubility of foxtail millet starch and increasing the contents of polyunsaturated fatty acid, linoleic and linolenic acids, and adverse effects on reducing the solubility of foxtail millet proteins and causing losses of nutrients due to Maillard reaction. Superfine grinding can reduce the particle size of foxtail millet to obtain a better mouthfeel of foxtail millet products. The superfine foxtail millet flour has better solubility, higher freeze-thaw stability, and lower gelatinization temperature. Microbial fermentation contributes positively to reducing the molecular weight and retrogradation value of foxtail millet starch, degrading rapidly digested starch, and improving the digestibility of foxtail millet protein. This paper briefly introduced the effects of different processing methods on foxtail millet nutrients, aiming to provide references for increasing the variety and improving the quality of foxtail millet products.