ఫుడ్ ప్రాసెసింగ్ & టెక్నాలజీ జర్నల్

నైరూప్య

Effect of Packaging Material and Storage Conditions on the Microbial Quality of Pearl Millet Extruded Snack

Adebukola Adesina

Cereal grains are the most important source of the world’s food and have a significant role in human diet throughout the world. The major cereals in Nigeria consist of maize, sorghum, millet and rice. It is the major functional food consumed in Nigeria due to its abundant availability and it is amenable to different processing technologies. Millets (Penisetum glaucum) are groups of small seeded species of cereal grains, widely grown around the world for food and staples. It is one of the most extensively cultivated cereals in the world, after rice, wheat and sorghum, particularly in arid to semi-arid regions. Millet is predominantly starchy and the bran layer of millet is a good source of b-complex vitamins. It also serves as a source of antioxidants in our diets. Thus, the presence of all the required nutrients in millets makes them suitable for large scale utilization in the manufacture of food products such as baby foods, snack foods and dietary food. Pearl millet also known as “bajra” is currently the world’s sixth most important cereal grain and is grown extensively in Africa, Asia, India and the Near East as a food grain and is the staple source of nutrition for millions of people. The crop has a wide adaptability to local environment for its properties of been tolerant to drought and heat. For this reason, it is widely grown in tropical regions of the world including Africa and Asia. It has high level of calcium, iron, zinc, lipids amino acids and antioxidants but bioavailability is low, inherently due to the presence of antinutritional factors, such as phytic acid, polyphenols tannin and trypsin inhibitor etc. Processing methods like fermentation are required to improve the nutritional, sensory value and availability of macro and micronutrients and reduce the anti-nutrients.