Molds and Mycotoxins in Food Value Chain: A Challenge to Food and Nutrition Security

Abstract

Due to postharvest losses on fresh produce, most farmers apply simple and affordable open sun-drying in-between harvest and the final consumers but this method causes the growth of mold and fungi in processed food. Hence, the objective of this study was to isolate and characterize molds associated with the drying of plantain chips, and post-drying handling of catfish and cassava peels using standard laboratory procedures. One gram (1gm) of respective samples of plantain chips, dried fish, and cassava peel was taken and crushed in a mortar, 1g of each was serially diluted up 10-6 fold, and 0.1mL of each was pour-plated in potato dextrose agar modified with chloramphenicol and incubated for 72 hours at 280C. Thereafter, discrete colonies were counted and characterized using standard laboratory procedures. A total of eight fungal isolates were identified which were Aspergillus flavus, Rhizopus sp., Aspergillus niger, Fusarium sp., Penicillium digitatum, Aspergillus fumigatus, Mucor sp., Neurospora sp. The mean fungal counts of cassava peels revealed that the samples recorded the highest mean fungal counts which were by Mucor sp. (24.1x106 Cfu/g) while Catfish had the lowest overall mean counts (3.2x106 Cfu/g). But Aspergillus niger had the lowest counts of (2.7x106 Cfu/g) in plantain chips. The total mean fungal count at ratio: catfish (31.4), plantain chips (37.6), and cassava peel (111). In conclusion, several findings from this work showed that samples dried under the sun in the studied area were contaminated with mycotoxin-producing microbes that could lead to their early decay, deterioration and loss of nutrients.