Abstract
Traditional food products in the Maghreb constitute a huge element of North African culture and identity. These foods contribute significantly to maintaining and even the development of sustainability of rural economy. Thus, the production of traditional foods could be considered as an issue that assumes increasing importance within the food industry. The traditional foods are a major concern not only to rural population, and consumers, but also to producers and distributors. Indeed, regulatory authorities, food processors, retailers and consumer groups have interests in ensuring that these foods present specific quality related to the production area and the know-how of the producers.
Traditional foods in the Maghreb are mainly produced following the application of one and/or several technology processes including fermentation, salting, drying, pickling. These processes contribute significantly to maintain the quality of traditional food products for several months. These include fermented olive and camel milk, canned capers, pastilla, assida, etc. These traditional products are made mostly at home through wisdom handed down from generation to generation. The quality and shelf life of these products varied greatly according to the country and even for the same country from one region to another and even from community to community.
The production of these products is mainly performed by individual farmers at rural zones and only small enterprises are present. Traditional food products could be considered important levers on which can be based long-term strategies for the development of rural areas. In order to enter and survive on the national and international markets, agricultural quality policy should be implemented. The maintaining of the production of these productions in rural zones allows to protect them from depopulation. This chapter will provide a review on the most known traditional foods in the Maghreb including vegetable, dairy, meat, cereal and sweet products. The salted and un-salted fermented foods will also be reviewed.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge Professor Néjib Guizani from the Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, for the reviewing of the chapter and for his valuable remarks and comments. Mr. Zaroual is grateful to Erasmus+ MIC for its financial support of his Ph.D. during his stay at Artois University.
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Zaroual, H., Boughattas, F., Karoui, R. (2019). Traditional Foods in Maghreb: Production and Research Progress. In: Al-Khusaibi, M., Al-Habsi, N., Shafiur Rahman, M. (eds) Traditional Foods. Food Engineering Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24620-4_4
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