Nutrient Composition and Aflatoxin Contamination of African Sourced Peanuts and Cashew Nuts: Its Implications on Health

Edible nuts are popular worldwide based on their varied attributes such as desirable taste, high nutritional value as well as some health benefits. Globally, the most popular edible nuts are groundnuts or peanuts, almond, cashew nut among others. Due to the rich nutritional composition of nuts, they tend to be prone to contamination by toxigenic fungi which could ultimately results in the release of fungal metabolites known as mycotoxins into nuts. In view of the nutritional composition of nut and its high susceptibility to fungal attack, this chapter looks at the nutritional profile, mycotoxigenic fungi and aflatoxins contamination of peanuts, cashew nuts and their products with a central focus on Africa where the effect of aflatoxin contaminations is more prominent

Risk Assessment of Mycotoxins in Stored Maize Grains Consumed by Infants and Young Children in Nigeria

Maize is a major complimentary food for infants (0–4years) and young children (5–12years) in Nigeria. In this study, we assessed the risk of exposure of infants and young children (IYC) to some major mycotoxins in stored maize grains from five agro-ecological zones of Nigeria. The probable daily intake approach was employed to determine exposure to five mycotoxins while the margin of exposure (MOE) and population at risk of primary hepatocellular carcinoma approaches were used to characterize the risk of consuming aflatoxin contaminated maize. Infants and young children in the Derived Savannah zone are more exposed to aflatoxins, ochratoxins, and zearalenone while those in the Northern Guinea Savanna zone are mainly exposed to deoxynivalenol and fumonisins. The mean national MOE for infants and children were 0.12 and 0.3 respectively while the risk of developing primary liver cancer was estimated at 152.7 and 61.1 cancer/year/100,000 population of infants and children, respectively. Infants and young children consuming mycotoxin contaminated maize in Nigeria are therefore vulnerable to the adverse health effects. Mycotoxin contamination of maize is still a challenge in Nigeria; mitigation efforts should target the value chain and stricter tolerable limits should be enforced