Dietary Risk Assessment and Consumer Awareness of Mycotoxins among Household Consumers of Cereals, Nuts and Legumes in North-Central Nigeria.

Chibundu N Ezekiel,Kolawole I Ayeni,Rudolf Krska,Isaac M Ogara,Muiz O Akinyemi,Oluwawapelumi A Oyedele,Michael Sulyok,Daniel A Babalola

doi:10.3390/toxins13090635

Abstract

This study characterized the health risks due to the consumption of mycotoxin-contaminated foods and assessed the consumer awareness level of mycotoxins in households in two north-central Nigerian states during the harvest and storage seasons of 2018. Twenty-six mycotoxins and 121 other microbial and plant metabolites were quantified by LC-MS/MS in 250 samples of cereals, nuts and legumes. Aflatoxins were detected in all food types (cowpea, maize, peanut and sorghum) except in millet. Aflatoxin B1 was the most prevalent mycotoxin in peanut (64%) and rice (57%), while fumonisin B1 occurred most in maize (93%) and beauvericin in sorghum (71%). The total aflatoxin concentration was highest in peanut (max: 8422 µg/kg; mean: 1281 µg/kg) and rice (max: 955 µg/kg; mean: 94 µg/kg), whereas the totals of the B-type fumonisins and citrinin were highest in maize (max: 68,204 µg/kg; mean: 2988 µg/kg) and sorghum (max: 1335 µg/kg; mean: 186 µg/kg), respectively. Citrinin levels also reached 51,195 µg/kg (mean: 2343 µg/kg) in maize. Aflatoxin and citrinin concentrations in maize were significantly (p < 0.05) higher during storage than at harvest. The estimated chronic exposures to aflatoxins, citrinin and fumonisins were high, resulting in as much as 247 new liver cancer cases/year/100,000 population and risks of nephrotoxicity and esophageal cancer, respectively. Children who consumed the foods were the most vulnerable. Mycotoxin co-occurrence was evident, which could increase the health risk of the outcomes. Awareness of mycotoxin issues was generally low among the households.

Highlights

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 500 million people, most of whom reside in resource-scarce rural areas of SSA, are exposed to precarious levels of mycotoxins [1]
A similar diversity of mycotoxins and other metabolites was previously reported in cowpea [19], maize [8,13,15], peanut [14] and rice [20] in Nigeria and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa [21,22,23,24,25,26], emphasizing that mycotoxin contamination of foods is an important food safety challenge that is yet to be solved in sub-Saharan
A comprehensive overview of the multiple mycotoxin contamination of diverse foods including cereals, nuts and legumes consumed by households in two north-central

Summary

Introduction

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 500 million people, most of whom reside in resource-scarce rural areas of SSA, are exposed to precarious levels of mycotoxins [1]. This worrying statistic could be attributed to a myriad of factors such as climatic conditions that encourage the frequent contamination of food crops by mycotoxigenic fungi, poor agricultural practices, poverty, inadequate knowledge of mycotoxins among primary food producers and a lack of mycotoxin regulations [1,2,3,4]. Mycotoxin contamination of foods could threaten the actualization of goal number 3 (good health and wellbeing) of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in this region

Methods

Results

Conclusion