Fermented Foods and Beverages

**15**

**Chapter 2**

**Abstract**

ies through ages.

**1. Introduction**

*okpeye*, *dawadawa*, *ugba*, *ogiri*, *soumbala*

Current Status of Alkaline

*Jerry O. Ugwuanyi and Augustina N. Okpara*

Agents of Africa

Fermented Foods and Seasoning

Fermented foods and seasoning agents play central roles in the food and nutrition security of nations across the world, but particularly so in Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania. As several people across the world gravitate back to "eating natural," there is a new emphasis on these fermented foods and seasoning agents which are also critical cultural foods in countries and societies where they are important. The result is the growth in demand for these products beyond what the traditional kitchen technologies is able to cope with. In Africa, many of the seasoning agents are products of alkaline fermentation of legume seeds, pulses and in some cases animal proteins and sea foods. There is an upswing in the popularity of these seasoning agents and around them, new cottage industries are growing, as against the kitchen technology that sustained them through the ages. This chapter will explore the state of biotechnological developments around these foods and seasoning agents and point the way to good manufacturing practice and industrial development and the need to grow this value chain that has helped to sustain societ-

**Keywords:** alkaline fermentation, African seasoning agents, fermented foods,

Fermented foods are products of edible or inedible raw materials that have undergone desirable physic-chemical and biochemical modifications through the activities of microorganisms and/ or their metabolites, but in which the weight of the microorganism (relative to substrate) in the food is small [1]. A distinct group of fermented foods is the traditional alkaline fermented products often used as food condiments/ seasoning agents [2]. Fermented foods and seasoning agents play central roles in the food and nutrition security of many nations, but particularly so in Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania [3]. As several people across the world gravitate back to "eating natural", there is a new emphasis on fermented foods and seasoning agents which are also critical cultural foods in countries and societies where they are important. In Africa, many of the seasoning agents are products of fermentation of legume seeds, a process that causes an increase, to alkaline regions, in pH of the product. This results from microbial degradation of seed proteins to peptides and amino acids and finally to ammonia [3, 4]. Fermentation of raw materials such as fish, legumes and plant oil seeds for the production of
