Tropical Plantains, Tubers, and Roots: Advancing Food Quality, Safety, and Processing Innovations for Global Nutritional Equity

ABSTRACT Plantains and tropical tubers and roots (PTRs), predominantly cassava, sweet potato, yam, potato, and taro, constitute indispensable nutritional and caloric pillars for over 500 million people across tropical and subtropical agroecological zones. Beyond their conventional role as energy‐dense carbohydrate matrices, these crops represent strategic reservoirs of dietary fiber, essential vitamins, and bioactive phytonutrients. However, their sustainable integration into high‐value global food chains is significantly constrained by high post‐harvest losses (ranging from 30% to 40%), rapid physiological deterioration, infrastructural deficits, and hazardous antinutritional factors (ANFs), including cyanogenic glycosides in cassava, glycoalkaloids in potato, and acrid calcium oxalate raphides in taro. This review provides an exhaustive synthesis of recent global production dynamics, molecular starch architectures, and emerging functional food applications of PTRs. It evaluates the efficacy of traditional processing (fermentation, soaking, and thermal treatment) versus modern non‐thermal and thermomechanical innovations (high‐pressure processing [HPP], extrusion, and enzymatic modification) in enhancing food safety, digestibility, and techno‐functional properties. Although traditional fermentation remains a cornerstone for detoxification and probiotic enrichment, modern technologies like HPP, pulsed electric fields (PEF), and encapsulation nanotechnology offer superior retention of heat‐sensitive micronutrients and antioxidants. Furthermore, the functional role of resistant starch fractions (RS1–RS5) in modulating metabolic health and the glycemic index is appraised as a critical frontier for functional food development. Ultimately, this work establishes an integrated processing continuum that bridges ancestral bioprocessing with eco‐efficient engineering, international food safety standards (Codex Alimentarius, EFSA), and gender‐responsive socioeconomic empowerment to reduce post‐harvest waste and advance global nutritional equity.