Abstract
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is among the poorest region in the world, and undernourishment continues to be a great challenge although this region is endowed with a lot of underutilized plant species (UUPS), which are rich in nutrients, especially micronutrients that are unavailable in staple foods. The potential for fortifying major staple foods with UUPS could be the remedy. This study seeks to provide an overview of the fortification of staple foods with UUPS in Africa and suggest the way forward for effective nutritional and health benefits. The review revealed that fortification of major staple foods has been investigated: maize with grain amaranth, soybean, and moringa; sweet potato with cowpea, sorghum, bambara groundnut, peanut, and moringa; cassava with African yam bean, breadfruit, pigeon pea, bambara groundnut, moringa, and cowpea; and sorghum with pearl millet and green peas. The others were yam with cowpea, plantain, and moringa, while rice was also fortified with baobab pulp and locust pulp. All these studies were found to be acceptable with dense nutritional properties. Specifically, micronutrients such as magnesium, phosphorous, zinc, potassium, and iron were increased while others showed rise in fibre and protein levels. The fortification of staple foods with UUPS has been shown to be promising; however, more designed feeding trials are required to verify the impact on reducing undernutrition and hidden hunger. To do this, it is recommended that rice fortified with UUPS should be targeted as rice is increasingly becoming the leading and important staple food in Africa.
Highlights
Nutritional deficiency is a major issue featuring prominently on the agenda of many developing countries and international partners, because it affects more than one-third of the global population and in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and one in four people remains undernourished [1,2,3]
The potential benefits for fortifying staple food with indigenous underutilized edible crops have been investigated with promising advantages such as the following: it requires minimal infrastructure and involves simple technology for the ordinary rural household [63]
Most of these underutilized crops are indigenous, hardy, and able to withstand harsh environmental conditions; it could be the solution to the impact of climate change on food security
Summary
Nutritional deficiency is a major issue featuring prominently on the agenda of many developing countries and international partners, because it affects more than one-third of the global population and in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and one in four people remains undernourished [1,2,3]. They hold huge potential for reducing the impact of malnourishment and hidden hunger The potential for their use in fortifying major staple foods in Africa is currently a novel approach and hold a brighter prospect for alleviating poverty and undernutrition. It improves the value of the underutilized crop and reduces postharvest losses. This study seeks to summarize information on fortification of staple foods using indigenous underutilized nutrient dense edible plant species and their strengths that is currently available, and suggest the way forward for effective nutritional and health benefits in Africa
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