Ginger is an herbaceous and flowering plant renowned for its rhizome, which is widely employed as both a spice and an herb. Since ancient times, ginger has been consumed in folk medicine and traditional cuisines for its favorable health effects. Different in vitro and in vivo studies have disclosed the advantageous physiological aspects of ginger, primarily due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and anti-carcinogenic properties. These health-promoting features are linked to the variety of bioactive compounds that are present in ginger. Following the advancement in consumer awareness and the industrial demand for organic antioxidants and functional ingredients, the application of ginger and its derivatives has been broadly investigated in a wide range of food products. The prominent features transmitted by ginger into different food areas are antioxidant and nutraceutical values (bakery); flavor, acceptability, and techno-functional characteristics (dairy); hedonic and antimicrobial properties (beverages); oxidative stability, tenderization, and sensorial attributes (meat); and shelf life and sensorial properties (film, coating, and packaging). This review is focused on providing a comprehensive overview of the tendencies in the application of ginger and its derivatives in the food industry and concurrently briefly discusses the beneficial aspects and processing of ginger.

Thermal treatment can initiate the production of some undesirable compounds in foods during processing. Acrylamide is one among such compounds that is produced (in starch-rich foods) as a result of Maillard reaction between reducing sugars and free amino acids. Acrylamide has gained much attention owing to its wide occurrence, dietary exposure, and toxicity. Its formation mechanism and mitigation has been an area of interest for numerous researchers since its discovery in foods. Some reviews have already been published on acrylamide where its formation and mitigation has been discussed with reference to some specific group of foods and/or some specific mitigation technique. In others, the mitigation section does not cover all the aspects of acrylamide attenuation reported in the literature. The present paper provides the updated and comprehensive information on formation, occurrence, dietary exposure, toxicity, and mitigation of acrylamide in foods during processing.