Fermented Millet Technology and Products

Millets are small pack of grains with several health benefits and dense nutrients including protein, essential fatty acids, dietary fiber, B-vitamins, and minerals. However, its utilization is still limited to the local consumers due to the lack of convenience food products. Processing technology, such as fermentation, is being used to prepare traditional millet products in Asian and African countries. For millet fermentation, specifically two types of fermentation are used, i.e., lactic acid bacteria fermentation and yeast fermentation that can be spontaneous or nonspontaneous. Fermentation technology is known to improve the nutritionaluality of food products though it has some limitations such as contamination with toxic microorganisms, etc. Therefore, the intervention of innovative approaches with the fermentation can make it a safer and better technology. This chapter discusses the effect of the fermentation technology on nutritional composition of the millets, current developments in fermented millet-based products, and the technological advancements explored in the millet fermentation technology.