Nigerian indigenous fermented foods: Their traditional process operation, inherent problems, improvements and current status

Nigerian indigenous fermented foods (NIFF) are reviewed in this report outlining their traditional status as well as any significant scientific and/or technological steps or modifications introduced towards developing them to the status of modern processed food. The NIFF consist of a wide range of products sourced from cereals ('burukutu', 'pito', 'kwunu', 'ogi', otika'), fruits ('agadagidi', cacao wine, 'eketeke', 'ugba'), legumes ('daddawa', 'iru', 'ogiri', 'ogboroti'), tubers ('abacha', 'elubo', 'fufu', 'gari', 'loiloi', 'kokobele'), tree sap ('ogogoro', palm wine), meat and seafoods ('afonnama', 'azu-okpo', 'nsiko', 'oporo'), and milk ('maishanu', 'nono', 'warankasi'). The problem inherent in the technology of their process operations forms part of the characteristic features of the traditional family and/or ethnic method of fermenting local staples. These were found to result from the following limitations associated with different aspects of indigenous fermentation processes, thus: a production environment which fails to observe good manufacturing practice (GMP) or code of hygiene; lack of knowledge of the culture of the process(es) and their characteristics; absence of any control in that the processing variables like pH, temperature, humidity, and quality of water were then unknown and were unable to be used to regulate the process; lack of awareness of the nutritional and/or toxicological implications of fermentation and its products. Development came up as results of assessing the characteristics of the NIFF systems with a view to improving on the equipment, substrates, culture as well as process control and product quality. These efforts have yielded a reduction in the duration of fermentation, and emergence of products that were free of health risks and which were of consistent quality capable of mass production through the use of mechanized equipment and sterile packages. These include 'dadawa' cubes, bottled palm wine, packaged dry cassava flours, 'gari', 'soy-ogi' and palm oil. Copyright (C) 1996 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology