No abstract

Aflatoxin (AF) contamination presents one of the most insidious challenges to combat, in food safety. Its adulteration of agricultural commodities presents an important safety concern as evident in the incidences of its health implication and economic losses reported widely. Due to the overarching challenges presented by the contamination of AFs in foods and feeds, there is an urgent need to evolve cost-effective and competent strategies to combat this menace. In our review, we tried to appraise the cost-effective methods for decontamination of AFs. We identified the missing links in adopting microbial degradation as a palliative to decontamination of AFs and its commercialization in food and feed industries. Cogent areas of further research were also highlighted in the review paper.

A total of 92 commercial compound feeds from South Africa were investigated for various mycotoxins. The data reveal the highest incidence of feed contamination for fumonisins (FB) (range: 104–2999 µg/kg) followed by deoxynivalenol (DON) (range: 124–2352 µg/kg) and zearalenone (ZEA) (range: 30–610 µg/kg). The incidence of ochratoxin A (OTA) and aflatoxins (AF)-contaminated samples were generally low, i.e., 4% and 30% of samples with levels ranging between 6.4 and 17.1 µg/kg (mean: 9.9 µg/kg) for OTA and 0.2 to 71.8 µg/kg (mean: 9.0 µg/kg) for AF. No samples contained T-2 toxin or HT-2 toxin. However, all samples analyzed were contaminated with at least one mycotoxin with a majority containing several mycotoxins. In particular, 3 of 4 positive samples mainly cattle feeds that had relatively high contents of OTA (ranging from 7 to 17.1 µg/kg) also contained high amounts of AF (>27.5 µg/kg) together with FB, DON and ZEA. Apart from a few samples, the levels of mycotoxins may be regarded as safe for livestock production in South Africa. However, the persistent co-occurrence of mycotoxins in samples, especially those at high concentrations, i.e., AF and OTA, together with other mycotoxins studied, may elicit synergistic or additive effects in animals. This should raise concern as multiple contaminations may pose a risk to livestock production and health.

Spontaneous nephropathy in Bulgaria, which is observed frequently during meat inspection and which differs morphologically from the classical description of mycotoxic porcine/chicken nephropathy as made in Denmark, was found to have a multi-mycotoxic aetiology being mainly provoked by a combined effect of ochratoxin A, penicillic acid and fumonisin B1 in addition to a not-yet-known metabolite. Mean contamination levels of ochratoxin A were consecutively low (188.8 and 376.4 microg kg(-1)) in contrast to high contamination levels of fumonisin B1 (5564.1 and 3254.5 microg kg(-1)) and penicillic acid (838.6 and 904.9 microg kg(-1)) for 2006 and 2007, respectively. Some other mycotoxins with lower importance such as citrinin, penitrem A, etc., may also influence clinicopathological picture of this nephropathy. A heavy contamination with Gibberella fujikuroi var. moniliformis (Fusarium verticillioides) and Penicillium aurantiogriseum complex (mainly Penicillium polonicum) was observed in almost all examined feed samples coming from pig and chick farms with nephropathy problems from Bulgaria. In contrast, low contamination with Aspergillus ochraceus, Penicillium verrucosum and Penicillium citrinum was observed in the same feed samples and these species were isolated as very rare components of the mycobiota.

Summary Protein‐energy malnutrition (PEM) is a problem in Africa and other developing nations of the world. Food Agriculture Organization's statistics reveal that in Africa, more than one in four people are undernourished. Cereals are a major staple in many African homes contributing significant amounts of energy, protein, but limiting in essential amino acid lysine, legumes on the other hand are protein and amino acid rich foods, but also lacking in sulphur‐containing amino acids. Hence, a combination of cereals with legumes would improve the protein and nutrient density of the subsequent food products. Probably due to their high nutritional values, these food products are susceptible to deterioration and fungal contamination, accompanied by the production of mycotoxins. This review therefore, appraises various works in literature on the use of these crops to produce composite food products and their potential to address the obstinate problem of PEM, including, the problems that could arise during processing and storage of these protein‐rich fractions.