Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) grown throughout the globe for its protein and oil contents. Its kernels are consumed as raw, boiled or roasted, and also in the form of culinary oil. Being a rich source of human diet (antioxidants, minerals and vitamins), animal feed (oil pressings, green straw and pods), industrial raw material (oil cakes and fertilizer), and soil fertility (atmospheric nitrogen fixation), peanut is a brilliant cash crop for both domestic markets as well as international trade. Having crystal clear importance in food and feed security peanut products are severely contaminated by aflatoxins (AFs). AFs produced mainly by Aspergillus flavus (A. flavus) and Aspergillus parasiticus (A. parasiticus), are secondary metabolites that jeopardize both human and animal health. There is no magic bullet found yet to solve this problem. Several techniques have been tested to minimize and control AFs contamination including different physical, chemical, and biological preventions. Many biological control agents, including nontoxigenic fungal strains, yeasts, and bacteria have been applied and considerable achievements gained. However, for complete eradication, a surge of studies is required to deeply investigate this intricate problem at gene and nucleotide levels and discover a permanent solution through elucidating its mechanism. The current review is focused on knowledge about A. flavus, its optimal growth conditions, growth promoting factors, factors affecting the level of AFs production, AFs biosynthesis pathway, mechanisms involved in resistance against fungal infection, various techniques and some simple precautionary recommendations to minimize AFs production.

Seven potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) varieties: Cipira, Jacob 2005, Mumbi, Banso, Belo, Mondial and Dosa grown in the North West Region of Cameroon and harvested at full maturity in January 2018 were analysed for processing attributes. These attributes were; external parameters (tuber size, shape, eye-depth, number of eyes), internal parameters (Dry matter (total solids), Moisture content, soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity) and Sensory properties (colour, texture, flavour and overall acceptability) of boiled tubers as well as potato fries from these varieties. Apart from Cipira, Jacob 2005 and Mondial with shallow eyes, all the other varieties had deep eyes. Cipira, Mumbi, Banso and Belo varieties registered a high dry matter content (>20 %) with that of Cipira being the highest (26.45%). An appraisal of the technological quality indicated that Cipira, Mumbi, Banso and Belo varieties had best characteristics for frying, mashing and roasting, with Cipira and Mumbi ideal for fries with respect to size and Banso and Belo ideal for crisps. On the other hand, Dosa and Jacob were better suited for mashing and roasting while tubers of Mondial were shown to be suitable for boiling and more appropriate to be consumed in the form of salads. The best overall acceptability of potato fries and boiled potatoes was recorded for products made with Cipira, Banso and Mumbi varieties. Each of these varieties is therefore of importance as its cultivation can target a particular processing technique. Keywords: External Parameters, Internal Parameters, Potato, Sensory Evaluation, Technological quality.

There are continuous research and industrial application for osmo-convective dehydration as a choice technology for the processing of dried fruit snacks and the development of new functional fruit snacks. Owning to the quality loss and a high energy investment associated with the convective dehydration of fresh fruits into dry snacks; osmotic dehydration prior to convective dehydration has become widely used for quality improvement, energy conservation and production of functional dried fruits snacks. In this review, we address the current knowledge in the use of osmo-convective dehydration to produce dried fruit snacks by providing information on the optimized process condition for producing such dried fruit snacks. Additionally, we present a summary of information on the effects of osmo-convective dehydration on the shelf life, nutritional quality, and microbial stability of dried fruit snacks. Finally, we provide information on the potential application of osmo-convective dehydration in developing functional fruits. Keywords: osmo-convective dehydration, fruits, quality, nutrition, product development

This study aimed to investigate the microencapsulation of oregano (Origanum vulgare L.), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) and sage (Salvia officinalis L.) essential oils by emulsification/freeze-drying, using ß-lactoglobulin (ß-lg) as the coating material. Among the different essential oils, the freeze-dried capsules containing oregano essential oil showed a lower hygroscopicity. Dried powders with higher initial protein concentration exhibited higher bulk tapped density and particle density. The porosity of essential oil-embedded microcapsules ranged from 75.04% to 84.62%, with no significant difference in between different essential oil species (P > 0.05). The overall encapsulation efficiency of essential oils was determined to be in the range of 29.50 – 36.31%. All freeze-dried samples containing essential oils showed significant antioxidant activities in a ß-carotene assay, with the percentage of inhibition ranging from 41.05% to 51.02%. The release kinetics of rosemary and sage essential oils from dried microcapsules into phosphate buffer solution were similar, whereas the release of oregano essential oil was considerably lower. FTIR analysis illustrated significant impact of oregano essential oil on the structure change of ß-lg. Key words: microencapsulation, essential oil, freeze-drying, ß-lactoglobulin