Rediscovery of Couscous in the World

Abstract

World food industry is changing by re-discovering traditional food tastes and techniques. Due to increase in curiosity on gastronomy, new tastes and "Geographical Indication-food origination", local foods are started to re-designing by food industry. Couscous is one of them, which is the world-wide known traditional cereal product, today. Its popularity has been increasing, recently. Especially, in the Western market, it is prepared due to its taste, rapid preparation and usage in salads (tabbouleh). There are three couscous types such as Turkish, African and pasta-like depending on the formulation, processing technique and usage. Pasta-like couscous is widely produced by pasta companies by using same pasta production line by changing the die of press. Couscous commonly produced by using semolina and sorghum in Africa and Asia, however in Turkey, traditional Turkish couscous is generally prepared by coating of bulgur granules with semolina, wheat flour; egg and water or milk. In the literature, studies have recently been made for enrichment of couscous by either substitution of semolina with legume flours and other grain flours or adding nutritious ingredients to the composition. Worldwide, total exportation and importation quantity of couscous are 124, 481 and 126, 799 tons in 2016, respectively. Nowadays, the need for easy prepared meals increased due to the fast lifestyles and people are more aware about the importance of nutritionally valued products and its benefits to health.