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Plantain is an important staple food in Central and West Africa but there is limited understanding of its market in Africa. In addition, the cooking methods for enhancing the nutritional value, consumer preference, and willingness to pay for plantain and plantain-based products are not well understood. To increase its utilization and guide breeding efforts, the knowledge gaps in the market and consumer dimension of the food chain needs to be known. This research contributes to this by examining the cooking methods, consumer preference, and willingness to pay for plantain and plantain-based products in Cameroon and Nigeria. The analysis is based on a household survey sample of 454 Cameroonian consumers in four divisions of Central Region and 418 Nigerian consumers in seven government areas of Oyo State. The results showed some levels of similarity in the consumption and cooking of boiled, roasted, and fried plantain in both countries. The trend in consumption of all plantain-based products was constant in Cameroon but increased in Nigeria. Taste and nutrition were identified as the most important factors that influenced consumers’ choice in consuming plantain and its products. In addition, socioeconomic characteristics were significant determinants of consumers’ choice to consume plantain and its products. Gender significantly influenced (p < 0.05) taste, while nutrition was significantly driven (p < 0.05) by education and annual income. Household size played a significant role (p < 0.05) in consumers’ choice when the price was considered. These findings serve as a guideline to improve existing products to match the needs of consumers in each country as well as to develop products for different consumer segments and to potentially increase production. ispartof: Foods vol:10 issue:8 ispartof: location:Switzerland status: Published online

The present study investigated the effect of ripening stages, and precursors on acrylamide formation in deep-fried chips of five plantain (AAB subgroup) and one cooking banana (ABB group). There was a great diversity in the number of proximate compounds, reducing sugars, amino acids, total phenolic (TP), and carotenoid content among different cultivars. The highest level of acrylamide was found in the cooking banana, followed by False Horn plantain and French plantain, respectively. French plantain hybrids exhibited a significant lower (p < 0.05) level of acrylamide when compared to French plantain. The ripening stage demonstrated a positive Pearson correlation (p < 0.05, r = 0.57) with acrylamide formation. As ripening progressed, the levels of glucose and fructose significantly increased (p < 0.05) and showed a positive correlation with acrylamide formation (r = 0.85 and 0.96, respectively). The level of the amino acid asparagine during ripening was not correlated with acrylamide formation. In contrast, the level of histidine, arginine, iso-leucine, and cystine during ripening was positively correlated (p < 0.05, r > 0.60) with acrylamide formation in fried chips. The higher level of TP was significantly related (p < 0.05) to the lower level of acrylamide (r = ‒0.62). The reduced levels of carotenoid isomers, except lutein, during fruit ripening were positively correlated (p < 0.05) with acrylamide formation, especially trans-BC (r = 0.72) and 9-cis-BC (r = 0.64). ispartof: International Journal Of Food Science And Technology vol:56 issue:10 pages:5417-5431 status: Published online

Aflatoxins are mainly produced by certain strains of Aspergillus flavus, which are found in diverse agricultural crops. In many lower-income countries, aflatoxins pose serious public health issues since the occurrence of these toxins can be considerably common and even extreme. Aflatoxins can negatively affect health of livestock and poultry due to contaminated feeds. Additionally, they significantly limit the development of international trade as a result of strict regulation in high-value markets. Due to their high stability, aflatoxins are not only a problem during cropping, but also during storage, transport, processing, and handling steps. Consequently, innovative evidence-based technologies are urgently required to minimize aflatoxin exposure. Thus far, biological control has been developed as the most innovative potential technology of controlling aflatoxin contamination in crops, which uses competitive exclusion of toxigenic strains by non-toxigenic ones. This technology is commercially applied in groundnuts maize, cottonseed, and pistachios during pre-harvest stages. Some other effective technologies such as irradiation, ozone fumigation, chemical and biological control agents, and improved packaging materials can also minimize post-harvest aflatoxins contamination in agricultural products. However, integrated adoption of these pre- and post-harvest technologies is still required for sustainable solutions to reduce aflatoxins contamination, which enhances food security, alleviates malnutrition, and strengthens economic sustainability., Highlights • Evidence of adverse effect of aflatoxins on human health and trade participation. • Highlighting recent pre- and post-harvest technologies to prevent aflatoxin contamination. • Expressing the need for a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to manage aflatoxin contamination. • Providing some suggestions to guide research and policies to address aflatoxin contamination.