Influence of Processing Techniques on the Nutritional Content of Millets

Despite having a good nutritional profile, millets are challenging to process and cook due to their inherent qualities, such as their hard seed coat, antinutritional components, and poor digestion. Millets are processed in two ways: primary processing and secondary processing. Primary processing methods includes threshing, winnowing, dehulling, drying, polishing, and milling (size reduction) are used to make millets fit for consumption.

- Khumbaron Kiranbala Kabui¹ and K.A. Athmaselvi¹

Introduction

Millet is a collection of smallseeded cereals and the oldest plant in the world cultivated by humans. It is one of the cereal grains that is commonly consumed, especially in the dry and semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia. It is a crop that is very nutrientdense and contains significant levels of minerals and vitamins. Additionally, they are an excellent source of protein, energy, dietary fiber, resistant starch, and slowly digesting starch. The common reason for the limited usage of millets is an antinutritional component found in the grain. They are often processed before consumption using methods like decorticating, malting, fermenting, roasting, flaking, and grinding to eliminate antinutrients and improve their palatability, nutritional value, and sensory qualities (Saleh et al., 2013a).

Need for processing of millets

Despite having a good nutritional profile, millets are challenging to process and cook due to their inherent qualities, such as their hard seed coat, antinutritional components, and poor digestion. Millets are processed in two ways: primary processing and secondary processing. Primary processing methods includes threshing, winnowing, dehulling, drying, polishing, and milling (size reduction) are used to make millets fit for consumption. Secondary processing operations such as roasting, fermentation, malting, puffing, popping, etc., are done directly on grains or after primary processing which transforms the grains into products typically intended for direct consumption. Although millets are processed to increase digestibility and nutritional bioavailability, a considerable quantity of nutrients are eliminated during processing. These processes could alter the physicochemical composition and nutritional value of the millets.