Developing millet-based cereal products with enhanced nutritional properties
There is a growing awareness today about climate change and its expected ravaging effects on agricultural productivity, food production and ultimately, food and nutrition security. Against this backdrop, drought-tolerant hardy crops are gaining importance as significant sources of food and nutrition especially in the most vulnerable parts of the world mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. In this regard, the millets, which are major cereal staples in many parts of Africa and Asia are of importance for food and nutrition security in these regions. Millets are processed into various foods using traditional processing methods such as fermentation and malting and modern technologies such as extrusion cooking. This chapter focuses on how these processing methods can enhance the nutritional properties of millet-based foods. The simple practice of compositing millets with other plant foodstuffs for enhanced nutritional quality of millet-based foods is also explored.