Risk assessment and exposure to levels of naturally occurring aflatoxins in some packaged cereals and cereal based foods consumed in Accra, Ghana

Aflatoxins are toxic secondary metabolites of fungal origin that contaminate agricultural commodities before, during and after harvest periods. A total of fifty-three (53) different foods (27 rice brands, 20 cereal based food brands and 6 pasta brands) were randomly obtained from the market and assessed for their different aflatoxin constitution (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2) as well as the total levels of the aflatoxins using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method. For the rice grain category, RS4 recorded the highest aflatoxin quantities of 65.77, 19.27, 1.02 μg/kg for AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 respectively and a total of 86.06 μg/kg which significantly differed (p < 0.05) from the other brands of foods. For the cereal based food category, CBS11 recorded the greatest quantities of 35.46, 4.92, 3.39 and 0.32 μg/kg for AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2 respectively and a total of 45.1 μg/kg. For the pasta category, PS1 recorded the greatest quantities of 0.94 and 0.85 μg/kg for AFB1 and AFB2 respectively. Total aflatoxin quantities detected in some foods were above the acceptable limits set by the European Union which makes them unsafe and dangerous for human consumption. Recorded Estimated Daily Intakes (EDI) and Hazard Indices (HI) values were in the range of 3.9 × 10(-3) – 0.899 and 3.9 × 10(-4) - 0.0899 respectively. The risk was low since HI values obtained were less than 1.