"Mycotoxins are produced by fungi, commonly known as mold. These toxins can develop during production, harvesting, or storage of grains, nuts, and other crops. Mycotoxins are among the most potent mutagenic and carcinogenic substances known. They pose chronic health risks: prolonged exposure through diet has been linked to cancer and kidney, liver, and immune-system disease. Because mycotoxins occur more frequently under tropical conditions and diets in many developing countries are more heavily concentrated in crops susceptible to mycotoxins, these chronic health risks are particularly prevalent in developing countries." from TextFood safety ,food security ,Public health ,

Bhat Ramesh V.

Vasanthi, Siruguri

English

Research Papers in Economics

FOR FOOD,AGRICULTURE,
AND THE ENVIRONMENT
FOCUS 10  •  BRIEF 3 OF 17  •  SEPTEMBER 2003
FOOD SAFETY IN FOOD SECURITY
AND FOODTRADE
Mycotoxin Food Safety Risk in Developing Countries
RAMESHV. BHAT AND SIRUGURIVASANTHI
A WIDESPREAD PROBLEM
M
ycotoxins are produced by fungi, commonly known as
mold. These toxins can develop during production, har-
vesting, or storage of grains, nuts, and other crops. Mycotoxins
are among the most potent mutagenic and carcinogenic sub-
stances known. They pose chronic health risks: prolonged
exposure through diet has been linked to cancer and kidney,
liver, and immune-system disease. Because mycotoxins occur
more frequently under tropical conditions and diets in many
developing countries are more heavily concentrated in crops
susceptible to mycotoxins, these chronic health risks are par-
ticularly prevalent in developing countries. In addition, myco-
toxins can be present in livestock feed, reducing productivity in
meat and dairy production. If these toxins find their way from
feed into milk or meat, they become a food safety hazard in
these products too.
Mycotoxins that pose human health risks include aflatox-
ins, deoxynivalenol (DON), fumonisins, ochratoxins, and ergot
alkaloids. Some are produced before harvest (DON, ergot);
some during and immediately following harvest (fumonisin,
ochratoxin); and a few predominantly during storage (aflatox-
in). Generally, tropical conditions such as high temperatures
and moisture, monsoons, unseasonal rains during harvest, and
flash floods lead to fungal proliferation and mycotoxins. Poor
harvesting practices, improper storage, and less than optimal
conditions during transport and marketing can also contribute
to fungal growth and proliferation of mycotoxins.
Among the mycotoxins, aflatoxins raise the most concern.
Aflatoxin B1 is found widely and in greater concentrations
than other naturally occurring forms of aflatoxin throughout
the world in foods such as maize, peanuts and peanut prod-
ucts, cottonseed and its extractions, and, to some extent,
chilies, peppers, and pistachio nuts. Aflatoxin M1, a metabolite
of aflatoxin B1, may occur in milk and its products if obtained
from livestock that have ingested contaminated feed.Though
high incidences of aflatoxin M1 have been reported in many
parts of the world, the contamination levels usually have not
been considered a serious public health problem.
Human exposure to levels of aflatoxins from nanograms to
micrograms per day occurs through consumption of maize and
peanuts,which are dietary staples in several tropical countries.
The chronic incidence of aflatoxin in diets is evident from the
presence of aflatoxin M1 in human breast milk in Ghana,Nigeria,
Sierra Leone,Sudan,Thailand,and the United Arab Emirates, and
in umbilical cord blood samples in Ghana,Kenya,Nigeria,and
Sierra Leone.Frequent consumption of low levels of aflatoxin
has been associated with chronic diseases like cancer.
DON occurs in grains such as wheat, barley, oats, rye, and
maize. The total dietary intake of DON, mostly from wheat, is
a potential health risk wherever wheat is consumed as a staple
diet. Fumonisins are found worldwide, primarily in maize and
its products and sorghum. Human exposure is highest in
regions like Transkei, South Africa, where moldy, home-grown
maize, damaged by insects, is often consumed. Ergot is caused
by the fungus species Claviceps in pearl millet in India and East
Africa, in sorghum wherever the crop is grown, and in wheat in
the United States.
HEALTH IMPLICATIONS
Aflatoxins, DON, fumonisins, and ergot alkaloids have been
implicated in acute mycotoxicosis (the result of consumption
of high levels of mycotoxins over a short period of time) in
both humans and farm animals. Outbreaks of aflatoxic hepati-
tis in humans have been reported in India, Kenya, and Malaysia.
Epidemiological studies carried out in several parts of Africa
and Asia indicate a correlation between exposure to aflatoxins
and primary liver cancer.The risks associated with exposure to
aflatoxins are enhanced by simultaneous exposure to the hepa-
titis B and possibly hepatitis C viruses. Recent studies carried
out in West African countries, including Benin,The Gambia, and
Togo, indicate chronic exposure of population groups and
fetuses to dietary aflatoxins. Children exposed to aflatoxin may
become stunted, underweight, and more susceptible to infec-
tious diseases in childhood and later life. Many acute disease
outbreaks from exposure to DON have been reported in
China and India. Consumption of ergot in pearl millet and
other grasses has resulted in acute nausea, vomiting, and dizzi-
ness in India and East African countries, and gangrene, a classic
ergot poisoning symptom, in Ethiopia. Consumption of moldy
sorghum or maize contaminated with fumonisin has been asso-
ciated with an outbreak of disease in India. Fumonisin has 
also been associated with occurrences of esophageal and liver
cancer and with the development of neural tube defects in 
the womb.
ECONOMIC LOSSES AND IMPACT ON
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Mycotoxin contamination in agricultural commodities has consid-
erable economic implications. Losses from rejected shipments
and lower prices for inferior quality can devastate developing-
country export markets (see Briefs 6 and 15 for examples).
The toll of the effects on human health includes the cost of
mortality—the cost of productive capacity lost when people die
prematurely—and the cost of morbidity—losses resulting from
hospitalization and the cost of health care services,both public
and private.Finally,there is the intangible cost of pain,suffering,
anxiety,and reduction of the quality of life.Costs to farmers include reduced income from outright
food or feed losses and lower selling prices for contaminated
commodities. The economic impact on livestock production
includes mortality as well as reductions in productivity,weight
gain,feed efficiency,fertility,and ability to resist disease.Both
quantity and quality of meat,milk,and egg production decreases.
It is estimated that in Indonesia,the Philippines,and Thailand,5
percent of the maize and peanuts produced are discarded
because of fungi contamination. The annual cost of contamina-
tion due to aflatoxin and other molds in these countries in
terms of product spoilage,human health effects,and losses in
the poultry and pork sectors was calculated to be 477 million
Australian dollars about a decade ago.
Any economic costs must be weighed against the costs of
preventing mycotoxins through better production,harvesting,
and storage practices. The latter costs are likely to be consider-
able. Member states of the African Groundnut Council—The
Gambia,Mali,Niger,Nigeria,Senegal,and Sudan—have calculated
the annual cost of implementing a program to reduce aflatoxin
contamination at  US$7.5 million.
PREVENTION
Intervention strategies to reduce exposure to mycotoxins can
be undertaken at the individual or community level. Individuals
can attempt to change their diets to avoid risky foods such as
maize.Physical sorting of contaminated grains or nuts could also
be useful. The use of the chemicals oltipraz and chlorophyllin
could reduce exposure to aflatoxins.
At the community level,mycotoxin formation in crops can
be limited before harvest through good agricultural practices
such as rotating crops,irrigating to eliminate drought stress,
controlling weeds,cultivating mold-resistant stocks,and intro-
ducing biocontrols such as nonmycotoxigenic fungal strains.
Postharvest measures include drying rapidly by mechanical
means and keeping crops dry. Sorting out contaminated nuts by
physical means,sorting by color,and washing with water will also
reduce mycotoxins.Chemical methods of detoxification include
ammoniation processes.
Some successful measures to control mycotoxins that
developing countries have undertaken during the last four
decades include
• segregation of contaminated peanuts in Malawi,
• detoxification of peanut meal for export in Senegal,
• regulation of mycotoxins in animal feed according to the
susceptibility of the animal species in Zimbabwe,
• selection of peanut varieties less susceptible to aflatoxin
contamination in Burkina Faso,and
• improvement in produce-handling practices during the
1960s in Nigeria and the 1990s in The Gambia.
Many of these practices could be refined and adopted by
other countries. However,such efforts are more likely to bring
market rewards when there is an export or livestock feed mar-
ket. Without price incentives,people are not likely to be moti-
vated to reduce chronic risks that are not apparent to them.
REGULATION
Most importing countries regulate mycotoxins,thus affecting
international trade.As Brief 6 points out,these stringent standards
may have only modest implications for human health. The Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)/ World
Health Organization (WHO) Codex Alimentarius Commission
concluded recently that populations with a low prevalence of
hepatitis B infection are unlikely to achieve a dramatic decrease
in liver cancer cases by imposing more stringent aflatoxin stan-
dards for foods,including milk.Hence,more stringent interna-
tional aflatoxin regulatory standards are not considered an
option by international organizations such as FAO and WHO.
CONCLUSIONS
Increased production of cereals will be needed in the future to
satisfy growing food demand in developing countries and feed
demand in the newly industrializing countries. Under these cir-
cumstances,occurrence of mycotoxins in agricultural commodi-
ties will continue to remain on the health and economic policy
agenda. In parts of the world where food supplies are limited,
drastic regulatory measures to lower mycotoxin standards
would lead to food shortages and higher prices.The observation
made during the outbreak of aflatoxin hepatitis in western India
in 1974 that “starving to death today by not consuming contami-
nated food in order to live a better life tomorrow is not a prac-
tical option” is relevant even after 30 years. Thus,any preventive
measures must be pro-poor,well-focused,and cost-effective. A
focus on high-risk agricultural commodities during high-risk sea-
sons in high-risk areas among high-risk population groups for
selected mycotoxins would yield the greatest public health bene-
fit. Monitoring human population groups for diseases attributa-
ble to mycotoxins,coupled with implementing appropriate pre-
vention and control measures,including decontamination and
detoxification,would ensure a food supply free from mycotox-
ins. Such investments would be returned many times over in
better human and animal health and reduced economic losses. ■
For further reading see International Agency for Research on
Cancer (IARC),Some Traditional Herbal Medicines,Some
Mycotoxins,Napthalene and Styrene,IARC Monographs on the
Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans 82 (Lyon:IARC
Press,2002);World Health Organization (WHO),Evaluation of
Certain Mycotoxins in Food,56th Report of the Joint
FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives,WHO
Technical Report Series 906 (Geneva,2002).
Ramesh V. Bhat (rameshbhat44@yahoo.com) is deputy director (Sr. Gr.) and Siruguri Vasanthi (vasanthigm@yahoo.com) is a research officer at the National
Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research, India.
International Food Policy Research Institute
2033 K Street, N.W. •  Washington, D.C. 20006-1002  •  U.S.A.
Phone: +1-202-862-5600  •  Fax: +1-202-467-4439  •  Email: ifpri@cgiar.org
www.ifpri.org 

Mycotoxin food safety risk in developing countries

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Mycotoxin food safety risk in developing countries

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