A large section of the human population relies on legumes as a staple food. Legumes are a rich source of nutrients and possess several health-related beneficial properties. However, the nutritional quality of legumes is challenged by the presence of a considerable amount of antinutrients. Consumption of inadequately processed legumes might affect normal metabolism and cause adverse human health-related effects. Effective processing becomes necessary to reduce these antinutritional factors before consumption. Optimizing the processing variables during preparation of legume-based traditional foods by using response surface methodology could be a valuable option to reduce antinutrients. The present review focuses on the efficacy of traditional household-scale processing unit operations vis-à-vis the reduction of antinutrients. Optimally prepared products should ensure meeting the consumer demand of improved, healthy, and more nutritious and safe foods. Modeling-based optimization approach will be helpful to define best practices at the small-, medium-, and large scale production alike. It should contribute towards effective utilization of legume resources, and to alleviate malnutrition and associated diseases world-wide.

Many fibrous ingredients incorporated in poultry feed to reduce production costs have low digestibility and cause poor growth in poultry. However, all plant-based fibers are not equal, and thus exert variable physiological effects on the birds, including but not limited to, digestibility, growth performance, and microbial fermentation. Several types of fibers, especially oligosaccharides, when supplemented in poultry diets in isolated form, exhibit prebiotic effects by enhancing beneficial gut microbiota, modulating gut immunity, boosting intestinal mucosal health, and increasing the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) in the gut. Recently, poultry producers are also facing the challenge of limiting the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) in poultry feed. In addition to other alternatives in use, exogenous non-starch polysaccharides digesting enzymes (NSPase) and prebiotics are being used to provide substrates to support the gut microbiome. We also conducted a meta-analysis of different studies conducted in similar experimental conditions to evaluate the variability and conclusiveness in effects of NSPase on growth performance of broilers fed fibrous ingredients. This review presents a holistic approach in discussing the existing challenges of incorporating high-fiber ingredients in poultry feed, as well as strategies to fully utilize the potential of such ingredients in improving feed efficiency and gut health of poultry.