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Background: The development of functional foods is receiving increased recognition as a result of the general interest in healthy diets as part of a healthier lifestyle. This project sought to incorporate red beetroot in dark chocolate and investigate the effect of beetroot powder concentration and processing time on the chocolates' bioactive compound composition, antioxidant capacity, and sugar content. Results: The results showed the presence of bioactive compounds such as betalains and ...

Traditionally,cocoa was first consumed in the form of beverages by the Aztecs and the Mayans and this is gaining increased attention in recent years.Cocoa beverages are valued for their attractive flavors and health-promoting properties of the bioactive phytochemicals in cocoa beans.However,raw cocoa beans have no economic and industrial value and need to be processed to make the beans more stable, economically and technologically viable. Again, despite the health benefits of the b...

Many forests in the tropics and sub-tropics are endowed with abundant genetic resources of edible and medicinal mushrooms. Most of these mushrooms remain unidentified, underutilized and understudied. For centuries now, mushrooms have not only been used as foods and therapeutics in folk medicine but in the present-day has found clinical uses. There is a growing interest in mushrooms on their dietetic, pharmacological, production of secondary metabolites and their bioactive properties. The...

Nutraceutical encapsulation envelopes protection of products from oxidative damage, controlled delivery of nanoencapsulated nutraceuticals and improved nutraceutical bioavailability as well as biological action. It is a promising technique to ensure the stabilization of such labile compounds and to protect the core ingredients from premature reactions and interactions In a comprehensive manner, the Handbook of Nanoencapsulation: Preparation, Characterization, Delivery and Safety of Nutraceuti...

In accordance with specific amino acid (AA) requirements for livestock, consideration must be given to energy intake and expenditures while selecting an efficient and productive flock. In this study to provide balanced nutrition to livestock, two conventional feed ingredients chicken feathers (CFP) and soybean by-products (okara) were mixed and incubated for microbial solid-state fermentation (SSF) using a Bacillus mutant strain (LU11). Individual CFP and okara were treated with LU11, and...

Dried fruits contribute immensely to breakfast menus and snacks for most people. A wooden cabinet dryer was fabricated and used to dry mango, pineapple and papaya to assist processors and micro-, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) gain economic advantage of dried fruits and reduce the high postharvest losses of fruits. The performance assessment of a wooden cabinet dryer was conducted to determine its effect on the weight of fruits (4.8–12.0 kg), yield (12.4–14.4%) and drying tem...

In African public health systems, Listeria monocytogenes is a pathogen of relatively low priority. Yet, the biggest listeriosis outbreak recorded to date occurred in Africa in 2018. This review highlights the factors that potentially impact L. monocytogenes transmission risks through African food value chains (FVCs). With the high rate of urbanisation, African FVCs have become spatially longer yet still informal. At the same time, dietary diversifications have resulted in increased consumptio...

Escalating energy costs in resource-limited cassava growing regions impede industrial exploits, which contribute to high postharvest loss in the cassava value chain. Studies have uncovered potentials for replacing up to 50% of spaghetti wheat flour (WF) with cassava flour (CF) (i.e., cassava-wheat flour spaghetti (CWFS)). Modification of the CWFS scheme is proposed to eliminate the CF drying energy and explore the direct use of dewatered cassava pulp (DCP) and WF to produce spaghetti (i.e....

The therapeutic benefits of fermented foods in the treatment and prevention of Type 2 diabetes mellitus have been reported. Aim: Inhibitory effect of fermented rice beverages on α-amylase, αglucosidase and pancreatic lipase was evaluated. Method: Two fermented rice beverages-fermented rice alone (FKR) and fermented rice plus roasted peanuts (FKRG) were produced using spontaneous fermentation. Capacity of the beverages to inhibit alpha-glucosidase, alpha-amylase and pancreatic lipase in vit...

Frafra potato (Solenostemon rotundifolius) is an underutilized climate-resilient tuber crop commonly cultivated in the tropics. Different accessions have been identified and bred to broaden its application in food. This study characterized the starches extracted from ten accessions, from Ghana (released) and Burkina Faso (unreleased), in terms of yield, physicochemical, and microstructural characteristics. The starches did not differ significantly (p < .05) in color (L*) and amount (35 ...

Commercial poultry feed required for proper growth of birds and egg production contains essential nutrients with maize as key component. Inadequately dried maize is prone to aflatoxin contamination and therefore when used in feed formulation for poultry may compromise the safety of the feeds and poultry products. This study investigated the levels of aflatoxins in feed ingredients, feed and poultry products sampled from Eastern and Greater -Accra regions of Ghana. The aflatoxin levels of B1, ...