Keywords
washing
aflatoxins
food
contaminations
Kano
How to Cite
Abstract
Any applicable measure to minimize or eliminate potential health hazards of aflatoxin food
contaminations underscores the essence to routinely check or evaluate food stuffs in many
markets for aflatoxin contaminations especially in developing countries like Nigeria. This
study investigated the level of aflatoxin contaminations on sorted and wash-dried samples of
cowpea, maize, melon, groundnut, yam chips and smoke-dried fish sold in Rimi market in
Kano state in December, 2020. Preliminary tests such as physical observation, proximate
compositions and microbial analysis were also conducted following standard protocols. Data
were subjected to analysis of variance and there were significant differences (p<0.05) in the
level of aflatoxins, proximate compositions and total viable counts of microbial infestation of
the food stuff analyzed. Moisture contents range from 4.03±0.01-12.11±0.22% accounted for
melon and smoked dried fish. Groundnut with moisture content of 6.02±0.05% had the highest
aflatoxin contamination of 96.31±12.08μgkg-1 attributed to unsorted sample followed by
cowpea with the least mean score of 0.078±0.02 μgkg-1 total aflatoxin contaminations. There
was between 9.0-79% reduction in AF total contamination after samples were sorted; and a
further 24-94% reduction in AF total contamination after samples were sorted, washed and dried.
Bacterial counts were between 4.05 x105 -2.99x106 cfu/ml in terms of range through all
samples. Aside other fungal species isolated in some samples, Aspergillus niger and
Aspergillus flavus were common to all samples analyzed. It is therefore, pertinent to say that
relevant agencies and policy makers should encourage sorting and washing of any food grains
and smoked dried fish before consumption.
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