It has been observed that the quality of food intake plays a significant role in healthy living and general well-being . This was the position of Professor Oluwatoyin Aletor while delivering the 182nd inaugural lecture of the Federal university Technology Akure,FUTA on Tuesday, July 8, 2025.
Aletor, who titled her lecture, “ Food Chemical Constituents and Their Value-Addition: Prospects For Enhanced Food Security and Livelihood,” said “to attain healthy living, the quality of food items consumed by the populace is important. The chemical composition of food plays a crucial role in human health and well-being. She said recent research has unraveled the intricate relationship between the components of our diet and their impact on disease prevention and management and that “ The balance of macronutrient such as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, along with micronutrients including vitamins and minerals, directly influences various aspects of human and animal health.”
The lecturer ,a professor of food chemistry and analysis, said people are becoming more aware of the connection between the role food intake plays in healthy living. According to her “Nowadays, people think deeply about how their diet can influence their health. This situation supports development of important trends in food consumption, which has increased consumer interest in foods with natural and health benefits. “ She said this category of food includes enriched food with bioactive compounds such as phenolics, mineral compounds, vitamins and natural colorants. Food rich in or fortified with nutraceuticals/biological active ingredients has been established to be a strategic approach towards the management of micro-nutrient deficiency and related diseases. According to her , these types of products are commonly known as functional foods and are defined as foods similar in appearance to conventional foods, which are consumed as part of the normal diet, and have demonstrated physiological benefits and/or reduced the risk of chronic diseases beyond basic nutritional factors.
Speaking on the chemical composition of foods she said “chemical nutrients are substances found in food that are required by the body to provide energy, give the body structure, and help regulate chemical processes. The composition of these substances affects the nutritional and sensory quality of food products. The chemical composition of foods is usually made from a variety of different chemical components. In addition, food is always prone to structural modification during storage or processing. Knowledge of the chemical and biochemical composition of foods is important to the health, well-being, and safety of the products to the consumers.”
Professor Aletor, whose research outputs have impacted enhancement of nutrient quality of foods through the knowledge of characterization of food chemical constituents of some alternative food sources and the value-addition/fortification of some non-conventional and underutilized food sources said “green leaves are one of the cheapest and most abundant potential sources of protein because of their ability to synthesize potential food chemicals in foods such as amino acids from a wide range of virtually unlimited and readily available primary materials such as water, carbon dioxide and atmospheric nitrogen and sunlight.”
Dwelling on value addition of chemicals to foods, she said “chemical substances play an important role in food production and preservation. These chemicals are categorized as food additive added to food and drinks for various reasons, such as to maintain or improve their safety, freshness, taste, texture or appearance; food supplement which are concentrated sources of nutrients (minerals and vitamins) or other substances with a nutritional or physiological effect, which include vitamins, minerals, amino acid essential fatty acids, fiber and various plants and herbal extracts; food flavourings added to food to give a difference or stronger taste/smell; food enzymes which are proteins that help speed up the metabolism, or chemical reactions in the body; botanicals which are made from plants, algae, fungi or lichens.”
Further recommendations as elucidated by the lecturer are exploring non-conventional pathways such as underutilized crops/leaves as possible future crops premised on the reports that they are adapted to a range of agro ecologies, and may be nutrient dense and offer better prospects in marginal production areas, which could improve availability and access to nutritious food by rural and poor resourced people. She added that for safety of food products, it is necessary to ensure safety of ingredients used such as technical aids, additives, flavouring or colouring.
She solicited synergy of highly trained specialist in toxicology, nutrition, chemistry, food composition and risk assessment techniques, to gather information on human dietary consumption levels and to make a clear safety assessment decision on food security. And to the industry, she said synergy should be encouraged between the researchers and the food industries to provide up-to-date and appropriate science-based advice on matters related to nutrition, food quality, security and safety.
The don who also spoke on the prevalent perceived malnutrition in developing countries said “the incidence of food shortages coupled with the increase in the prices of conventional foods in developing countries have given rise to various forms of malnutrition such as kwashiorkor, marasmus, mortality and disease morbidity, especially among the infants and pregnant women. Adequate nutrition is one of the pillars of public health. The estimation of nutrient intake from food consumption requires reliable data from food chemical composition”
To the government, she said consumers expect government to look after their interest in making sure that the food industry produces safe and nutritious foods, so that risks to human health will be minimized if not eradicated. She added that government should provide financial and technical resources to give such assurances, especially in developing countries, Nigeria inclusive.
The Vice Chancellor, Professor Adenike Oladiji , who Chaired the event, described Professor Aletor as an erudite Scholar who knows her onions. She said her lecture will no doubt enlighten guests and others on how to eat healthily, enhance food quality and proffer solution to food needs of Nigeria.
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