Exposure and Risk Assessment of Aflatoxin Ingested Cereals and Grains by University Students
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Date
November, 2018
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Abstract
The objective of this study was to assess the exposure and health risks associated with the consumption of kenkey by students of KNUST. Students completed a food dietary questionnaire to gather their exposure frequency and amount of kenkey eaten. Kenkey samples were collected from various students’ food joints and homogenized. Sirhan method of extraction and purification was used to extract the aflatoxin from the kenkey. HPLC was used to determine the concentrations of each group of aflatoxin. The probabilistic approach was used to model the chronic exposures using the Monte Carlo simulation of the Palisade @Risk software. The mean concentration of aflatoxin was 4.78 ng/g. Probabilistic approach was used to estimate the chronic daily exposure. The chronic exposures ranged between 0.024-1.09 ng/g bw/day. The chronic exposure and reference dose of aflatoxin were used to estimate the hazard quotient. The hazard quotient was below the tolerable limit (1). The chronic exposure for both carcinogen and non-carcinogen groups of aflatoxins were also estimated of exposure. There was a significant health concern as the margin of exposure (792.06) for the carcinogen group was below the threshold level (10,000). Aflatoxin contamination must be given a serious attention and effective measures must be in place to curb the contamination of aflatoxin.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Science, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Food Quality Management