Urbanization, emergence, and prominence of diseases and ailments have led to conscious and deliberate consumption of health beneficial foods. Whole grain (WG) cereals are one type of food with an array of nutritionally important and healthy constituents, including carotenoids, inulin, β-glucan, lignans, vitamin E-related compounds, tocols, phytosterols, and phenolic compounds, which are beneficial for human consumption. They not only provide nutrition, but also confer health promoting effects in food, such as anti-carcinogenic, anti-microbial, and antioxidant properties. Fermentation is a viable processing technique to transform whole grains in edible foods since it is an affordable, less complicated technique, which not only transforms whole grains but also increases nutrient bioavailability and positively alters the levels of health-promoting components (particularly antioxidants) in derived whole grain products. This review addresses the impact of fermentation on phenolic compounds and antioxidant activities with most available studies indicating an increase in these health beneficial constituents. Such increases are mostly due to breakdown of the cereal cell wall and subsequent activities of enzymes that lead to the liberation of bound phenolic compounds, which increase antioxidant activities. In addition to the improvement of these valuable constituents, increasing the consumption of fermented whole grain cereals would be vital for the world’s ever-growing population. Concerted efforts and adequate strategic synergy between concerned stakeholders (researchers, food industry, and government/policy makers) are still required in this regard to encourage consumption and dispel negative presumptions about whole grain foods.

Aflatoxin (AF) contamination presents one of the most insidious challenges to combat, in food safety. Its adulteration of agricultural commodities presents an important safety concern as evident in the incidences of its health implication and economic losses reported widely. Due to the overarching challenges presented by the contamination of AFs in foods and feeds, there is an urgent need to evolve cost-effective and competent strategies to combat this menace. In our review, we tried to appraise the cost-effective methods for decontamination of AFs. We identified the missing links in adopting microbial degradation as a palliative to decontamination of AFs and its commercialization in food and feed industries. Cogent areas of further research were also highlighted in the review paper.

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is a well-known drought and climate resistant crop with vast food use for the inhabitants of Africa and other developing countries. The importance of this crop is well reflected in its embedded benefits and use as a staple food, with fermentation playing a significant role in transforming this crop into an edible form. Although the majority of these fermented food products evolve from ethnic groups and rural communities, industrialization and the application of improved food processing techniques have led to the commercial success and viability of derived products. While some of these sorghum-based fermented food products still continue to bask in this success, much more still needs to be done to further explore evolving techniques, technologies and processes. The addition of other affordable nutrient sources in sorghum-based fermented foods is equally important, as this will effectively augment the intake of a nutritionally balanced product.

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Summary Protein‐energy malnutrition (PEM) is a problem in Africa and other developing nations of the world. Food Agriculture Organization's statistics reveal that in Africa, more than one in four people are undernourished. Cereals are a major staple in many African homes contributing significant amounts of energy, protein, but limiting in essential amino acid lysine, legumes on the other hand are protein and amino acid rich foods, but also lacking in sulphur‐containing amino acids. Hence, a combination of cereals with legumes would improve the protein and nutrient density of the subsequent food products. Probably due to their high nutritional values, these food products are susceptible to deterioration and fungal contamination, accompanied by the production of mycotoxins. This review therefore, appraises various works in literature on the use of these crops to produce composite food products and their potential to address the obstinate problem of PEM, including, the problems that could arise during processing and storage of these protein‐rich fractions.

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The proliferated contamination of agricultural commodities by mycotoxins and their attendant toxic effects on humans and animals which consume such commodities constitutes a major concern to food safety and security. These highly toxic food contaminants are produced by various filamentous fungi species that are ubiquitous in nature, however, favourable climatic conditions in the tropics favour their proliferation in these regions. Africa, by virtue of its location along the equator makes it highly accommodative to proliferation of mycotoxigenic fungi species, as such, it is the most affected of all the continents. Other factors such as poverty, and climate change further complicates the mycotoxin situation on the continent. Economic impact due to mycotoxin contamination in Africa is thus alarming. The effects of mycotoxins can in fact be felt in the overall health of humans and animals, sustainable development, food security and safety, damage to the African agricultural export brand, negatively impacting Africa's self-sustainability and increased dependence on foreign aid, not excluding high cost of research, mitigation and regulation of the prevalence of these toxins in African countries. This book chapter presents an exhaustive appraisal of the socioeconomic impact of mycotoxins on Africa. Our observations herein are expected to stimulate policy makers, as well as, all stakeholders along the food supply chain to identify critical areas of collaboration and strengthen alliances in order to ameliorate the effects of these toxicants on the continent of Africa, and the world at large.

Mycotoxins present a great concern to food safety and security due to their adverse health and socio-economic impacts. The necessity to formulate novel strategies that can mitigate the economic and health effects associated with mycotoxin contamination of food and feed commodities without any impact on public health, quality and nutritional value of food and feed, economy and trade industry become imperative. Various strategies have been adopted to mitigate mycotoxin contamination but often fall short of the required efficacy. One of the promising approaches is the use of bioactive plant components/metabolites synergistically with mycotoxin-absorbing components in order to limit exposure to these toxins and associated negative health effects. In particular, is the fabrication of β-cyclodextrin-based nanosponges encapsulated with bioactive compounds of plant origin to inhibit toxigenic fungi and decontaminate mycotoxins in food and feed without leaving any health and environmental hazard to the consumers. The present paper reviews the use of botanicals extracts and their phytochemicals coupled with β-cyclodextrin-based nanosponge technology to inhibit toxigenic fungal invasion and detoxify mycotoxins.