**4. Conclusion and future prospects**

This chapter gives an overview of ACR in foods, significant progress in its formation and mitigation strategies with a dearth of information in Africa. Its occurrence and exposure in other parts of the world have been extensively reviewed by other authors with little focus on the African continent. Starch-based foods and food products constitute a major and basic daily diet for millions in the developing world, particularly in Africa. Coupled with the myriad of associated traditional heat processing operations, it is justified to conclude that inhabitants in this region are exposed to high risk of ACR contamination. This is expected to stimulate interest among scientists working in the field of food safety and quality, for making better efforts towards investigating the occurrence and exposure of ACR in Africa. With such data lacking, there is also insufficient information on the impact of lower levels of exposure to ACR content, which needs to be established. Concerted efforts must also be directed towards this, using validated models of predicting dose exposure and mechanism of toxicity relationship to assist in measuring the public health risk of ACR in foods. Furthermore, adequate enlightenment and sensitization of the populace by government agencies and the industry about the dangers and possible ways of reducing this food contaminant must be provided and emphasized.
