Abstract
Aflatoxins are toxic secondary metabolites of fungal origin that contaminate agricultural commodities before, during and after harvest periods. A total of fifty-three (53) different foods (27 rice brands, 20 cereal based food brands and 6 pasta brands) were randomly obtained from the market and assessed for their different aflatoxin constitution (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2) as well as the total levels of the aflatoxins using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method. For the rice grain category, RS4 recorded the highest aflatoxin quantities of 65.77, 19.27, 1.02 μg/kg for AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 respectively and a total of 86.06 μg/kg which significantly differed (p < 0.05) from the other brands of foods. For the cereal based food category, CBS11 recorded the greatest quantities of 35.46, 4.92, 3.39 and 0.32 μg/kg for AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2 respectively and a total of 45.1 μg/kg. For the pasta category, PS1 recorded the greatest quantities of 0.94 and 0.85 μg/kg for AFB1 and AFB2 respectively. Total aflatoxin quantities detected in some foods were above the acceptable limits set by the European Union which makes them unsafe and dangerous for human consumption. Recorded Estimated Daily Intakes (EDI) and Hazard Indices (HI) values were in the range of 3.9 × 10-3 - 0.899 and 3.9 × 10-4 - 0.0899 respectively. The risk was low since HI values obtained were less than 1.
Highlights
Mycotoxins have become a major global concern and developed greatly during the last few decades due to their implications to human as well as animal health, productivity and trade
Species such as A. flavus, A. parasiticus, A. nomius, A. ochraceoroseus, A. pseudotamarii and Emericella venezuelensis is a species with the perfect stage that produces AFB1, aflatoxin B2 (AFB2), aflatoxin G1 (AFG1) and aflatoxin G2 (AFG2) rarely has been implicated for the production of aflatoxins ([3,4, 5])
CBS11 recorded the highest value of 4.92 μg/ kg and was statistically different (p < 0.05)
Summary
Mycotoxins have become a major global concern and developed greatly during the last few decades due to their implications to human as well as animal health, productivity and trade. Fungi belonging to the genus Aspergillus are well noted for the production of aflatoxins which are a group of polyketide-derived furanocoumarin secondary metabolites. Species such as A. flavus (produces AFB1 and AFB2), A. parasiticus (produce AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2), A. nomius (produces AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2), A. ochraceoroseus (produces AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2 rarely), A. pseudotamarii (produces AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2 rarely) and Emericella venezuelensis is a species with the perfect stage that produces AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2 rarely has been implicated for the production of aflatoxins ([3,4, 5]). Aspergillus bombycis reported by Peterson et al [6] isolated from insect frass in silkworm rearing houses in Japan has currently been added to the list as a new aflatoxigenic species
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