Sorghum fermentation for nutritional improvement

Abstract

Sorghum is one of the top five cereal crops in the world. It has been mostly used as a staple in Africa and Asian countries since ancient times. Its use as gluten free cereal is gaining importance in other developing countries, where it has traditionally been used as feed material and production of bioethanol and other industrial products. The grains are rich in nutrients, have high resistant starch, which makes it ideal for weight loss program. The world consumption pattern has seen a marginal growth, especially in China, USA, and Mexico as these grains are being preferred as non-gluten substitutes for the production of various functional and traditional foods. One of the major deterrents for its use as food is the lower availability of protein, starch, and minerals due to the presence of anti-nutritional factors like tannins and phytic acid. However, processing like fermentation has proven to reduce the anti-nutritional factors, thus improving the nutritional availability and the functional properties of sorghum. During preparation of most traditional dishes by natural or forced lactic acid bacteria fermentation, pH drops to below 4.0, which helps to prevent the growth of enteropathogenic bacteria, thus rendering the food microbiologically safe. Worldwide, especially in Africa different fermented products have been produced from sorghum. In India as well as in other countries, efforts are being made to replace the high glycemic index cereals such as rice and wheat with sorghum to prepare traditional ethnic foods through fermentation. There is enough opportunity to include this grain in the daily diets for better health.