Ghana's indigenous food technology: A review of the processing, safety, packaging techniques and advances in food science and technology

Modern food science and technology has greatly influenced indigenous processing, safety and packaging of food. However, this body of knowledge has, over the years somehow, eluded the general public. This review seeks to provide an insight into the indigenous traditional processing techniques, the cultural practices of food safety, traditional packaging methods and to identify probable technological advancements to food safety and supply with main focus on smoking, salting and pickling and fermentation. In Ghana, high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been detected in fish smoked using traditional methods. Accordingly, technological advancement has led to the development of smoking methods, such as FAO-Thiaroye processing technique (FTT) and Abuesi gas fish smoker for fish smoking and drying, which have resulted in lower PAH4 levels and uniform appearance of the end products. Moreover, the high salt concentrations in salted fish/meat products for instance "Momone", "Kako", "Koobi" and "Ewurefua" is a major risk factor for increased hypertension whereas food crops such as maize, millet, sorghum and cassava mostly constitute fermented diets in Ghana. These diets are usually prepared using rudimentary tools and processing methods which are often subjected to microbial and physical contaminations, thus leading to an acute diarrhea, cholera, typhoid fever and even death. Moreover, natural raw materials, such as broad leaves, paper, maize sheaths etc., which are biodegradable are used in packaging traditional foods in the country as they enhance the nutritional, aromatic and taste properties of the food. Although most traditional processes are either heat or salt processed, education and training must be intensified to ensure processed foods are microbiologically and chemically safe for human consumption while technological advancements must be accelerated to feed growing population.