A Systematic Review of the Efficacy of Interventions to Control Aflatoxins in the Dairy Production Chain—Feed Production and Animal Feeding Interventions

Abstract

The study presents a systematic review of published scientific articles investigating the effects of interventions aiming at aflatoxin reduction at the feed production and animal feeding phases of the milk value chain in order to identify the recent scientific trends and summarize the main findings available in the literature. The review strategy was designed based on the guidance of the systematic review and knowledge synthesis methodology that is applicable in the field of food safety. The Web of Science and EBSCOhost online databases were searched with predefined algorithms. After title and abstract relevance screening and relevance confirmation with full-text screening, 67 studies remained for data extraction, which were included in the review. The most important identified groups of interventions based on their mode of action and place in the technological process are as follows: low-moisture production using preservatives, acidity regulators, adsorbents and various microbiological additives. The results of the listed publications are summarized and compared for all the identified intervention groups. The paper aimed to help feed producers, farmers and relevant stakeholders to get an overview of the most suitable aflatoxin mitigation options, which is extremely important in the near future as climate change will likely be accompanied by elevated mycotoxin levels.

Effects of roof angle, inlet gap size and dryer height on temperature and relative humidity in a chimney-dependent solar crop dryer

“…Food products contaminated with aflatoxins have received a lot of attention globally of late, since they have been found to endanger human healthy lifestyle and commodities in international trade [8]. Aflatoxins are heatstable molecules and can therefore not be easily eliminated using different heat treatments, therefore prevention of their formation is essential [9]. Rapid drying of Agroproducts to reduce their moisture content prevents the formation of favourable conditions for the growth of the fungi [9].…”

“…Aflatoxins are heatstable molecules and can therefore not be easily eliminated using different heat treatments, therefore prevention of their formation is essential [9]. Rapid drying of Agroproducts to reduce their moisture content prevents the formation of favourable conditions for the growth of the fungi [9]. The level of harm caused depends upon the dose of contamination of fungal toxins.…”

“…There are different drying methods in use today. Hot air drying (HA) is an effective method for drying, however, it operates at high temperature which usually causes degradation of useful nutrients and colour [9]. Vacuum freeze drying (VF) has been researched and applied to food crop drying and has been observed to lead to much less losses in the nutrients as compared to high heat treatments [11].…”

The Effects of roof angle, inlet gap size and drying time on dryer mass flow rate and moisture content in a chimney-dependent solar crop dryer using design of experiments (DOE)

“…They may be classified as direct or indirect, based on whether the material to be dried is exposed to direct insolation or not. On the other hand, they may be classified based on the mechanism of air flow through the dryer, thus solar dryers can be either natural convection solar dryers or forced convection solar dryers [17]. Air flows through such dryers due to thermally induced density gradient.…”

“…Air flows through such dryers due to thermally induced density gradient. In dryers using forced convection, a pressure difference, generated by a fan, forces air to flow through the drying chamber [17].…”