Farmers warned of aflatoxins in food amid drought threat
What you need to know:
- Aflatoxins produce moulds, affecting staple crops such as maize and groundnuts, noting that those were the most vulnerable crops to aflatoxins.
Dar es Salaam. Agricultural experts have warned that aflatoxins were still a serious threat to food security in the country amid the recent drought warning by the weatherman.
All citizens who buy food directly from farmers have also been asked to ensure that they properly store it to avoid contamination by toxins which has long been a threat in East African region’s food security.
The Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) on September 2, this year advised the good use and storage of food at the household level, as it warned against the trend of autumn rains for the period from October to December where there will be long periods of drought across the country.
According to experts, aflatoxins produce moulds, affecting staple crops such as maize and groundnuts, noting that those were the most vulnerable crops to aflatoxins.
A 2016 report by the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology indicates that Tanzania is (was) reported to be losing over $264 million due to aflatoxin poisoning.
An expert from the Tanzania Initiative for Preventing Aflatoxin Contamination (Tanipac) project, Khassim Msuya, told The Citizen yesterday that the situation showed that there was still a need to increase education to citizens about the effects of aflatoxins.
The officer from the project worth Sh80 billion designed within the context of Tanzania Development Vision 2025 (TDV 2025), placing a high priority on the agriculture sector, said this over a telephone interview while at the climax of World Food Day exhibition.
Mr Msuya said that there were still toxins produced in large quantities in food crops, some of which were scientifically proven to have serious health effects, including Aflatoxin, Fumonisin T-2/HT-2 toxins, vomitoxin, Ochratoxin A (OTA), Ergot toxins and Zearalenone.
The expert said that the fungi that attack crops and were mostly involved in producing poison in food crops in the country were Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium.
Mr Msuya mentioned that the foods most affected by aflatoxin were maize, corn, sorghum, rice, peanuts, sesame, sunflower, cashews, coffee, dried spices and dried root crops including cassava.
“Every household and the nation at large depends on these foods. As we enter into a period of drought, we must first ensure that the available food is safe for the people,” he said.
Reiterating the alert, the project’s quality controller, Ms Mercy Butta said that aflatoxin reaches consumers in various ways, such as food contamination and when the child sucks milk from a mother who has eaten contaminated food.
Another way, she said, is the consumption of products derived from animals that were fed food contaminated with toxins.
