Climate change can cause an increase in arid soils, warmer weather, and reduce water availability, which in turn can directly affect food security. This increases food prices and reduces the availability of food. Therefore, knowledge concerning the nutritional and technological potential of non-traditional crops and their resistance to heat and drought is very interesting. Pearl millet is known to produce small nutritious cereal grains, which can endure both heat and dry conditions, and is one of the basic cereals of several African and Asian countries. Although this species has been cultivated in Brazil for at least 50 years it is only used as a cover crop and animal feed, but not for human consumption. Nonetheless, pearl millet grains have a high potential as food for humans because they are gluten-free, higher in dietary fiber content than rice, similar in lipid content to maize and higher content of essential amino acids (leucine, isoleucine and lysine) than other traditional cereals, such as wheat and rye. In addition, the crop is low cost and less susceptible to contamination by aflatoxins compared to corn, for example. Most grains, including pearl millet, can be milled, decorticated, germinated, fermented, cooked and extruded to obtain products such as flours, biscuits, snacks, pasta and non-dairy probiotic beverages. Pearl millet also has functional properties; it has a low glycemic index and therefore it can be used as an alternative food for weight control and to reduce the risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes. Thus, this review intends to show the potential of pearl millet as an alternative food security crop, particularly in countries, like Brazil, where it is not commonly consumed. Also this review presents different processes and products that have been already reported in the literature in order to introduce the great potential of this important small grain to producers and consumers.

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Black table olives are a popular food and highly appreciated for its taste, typically used in pizzas, salads and other meals. Among the compounds present in this food are the bioactive lipids like monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and phytosterols, related to the prevention of the occurrence of some chronic diseases. Pasteurization may be applied to black table olives aiming to ensure its microbiological quality, but this processing can cause undesired degradation of thermosensitive organic compounds. This work aimed to evaluate the changes that occur in chemical properties, fatty acids profile, and phytosterols in Azapa black table olives after pasteurization. The olives were treated at 80 °C for 5 min, which achieved a lethality factor F62.4ºC equal 40 min. Fatty acids and phytosterols determination were carried out using a Gas Chromatography with Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID). Other components were analyzed by physicochemical determinations. The results demonstrate that Azapa black table olives are a source of unsaturated fatty acids (72.33g.100 -1 g) and total phytosterols (137.4 mg.100 -1 g), substances associated with beneficial health effects. Pasteurization did not promote chemical changes (p>0.05) in total protein, lipids, ash content, acidity, pH, and total chlorides in the samples, except for moisture content that had 4.1% of reduction. The fatty acid composition also was not affected (p>0,05). However, phytosterol levels were affected (p<0.05) by thermal processing, with a decrease of about 24.6% of campesterol, 16.8% of β-sitosterol, and 60.9% of stigmasterol. Data suggest that thermal processing used to treat Azapa black olives must be optimized to minimize this negative effect.

A ozonização gasosa aplicada à descontaminação microbiológica e química em grãos de cereais tem grande potencial de aplicação na indústria de armazenamento, transporte e processamento, aumentando assim a segurança no consumo dos produtos derivados dessas matérias-primas. O presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a influência do gás ozônio nas características físico-químicas e no potencial de germinação de grãos de milheto pérola, quando estes são submetidos a diferentes condições de exposição ao O3 de forma que não afete a qualidade tecnológica dos grãos. Os tratamentos aplicados no milheto não causaram diferença significativa (p> 0,05) nos parâmetros físico-químicos (umidade, acidez e cor instrumental), somente uma amostra ozonizada diferiu da amostra controle (p< 0,05) quanto a coloração. No teste de germinação, verificou-se que o tratamento controle não diferiu dos tratamentos P1, P2 e P3 (p> 0,05) e os tratamentos P4, P5 e P6, diferiram do tratamento controle (p <0,05). Assim, nas condições avaliadas neste estudo, é recomendado a ozonização de milheto em concentrações de até 400 mg de O3/Kg, não afetando a qualidade dos grãos.