Fermentation and germination as a way to improve cereals antioxidant and antiinflammatory properties

The growing consumer's demand toward natural, healthier, and sustainable food products drive-up the manufactures and food industry attention in searching for innovative technology strategies able to obtain new food products with advantageous and desirable proprieties than starting material. Among these, fermentation and germination processes represent simple and promising technology strategies for enhancing the nutritional qualities and bio-functional properties of processed food products, including cereal grains representing worldwide the main sources for human nutrition. During fermentation as well germination, several biochemical, physical, and metabolic changes occur making nutrients and phytochemicals free and accessible through decreased antinutritional factors levels (i.e., tannins, trypsin, and chymotrypsin inhibitors) and increased nutrients digestibility and availability (i.e., free sugars, amino acids or small peptides, phytochemicals, vitamins, and mineral compounds), providing higher nutritional and sensorial values, as well as improved functional bioactivities than not processed products. This chapter dealt with the effects of fermentation and germination biotechnology processes on the nutritional qualities and functional properties of postprocessing cereal grains with particular attention to their antioxidant and antiinflammatory potential.