Browsing by Author "Ankomah, Albert"

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    Effect of traditional processing of hausa koko (millet porridge) and ekoegbeme (cooked dehulled maize grits) on aflatoxins.
    (KNUST, 2019-06) Ankomah, Albert
    Aflatoxin is produced as secondary metabolites by fungi Aspergillus flavus, A.parasiticus and A. nominusmoulds. These fungi grow on various crop such as nuts, maize, millet and other grains. Chronic dietary ingestion of low dose of aflatoxin is a risk factor for liver cancer, however ingestion of high doses of aflatoxin contaminated food can result in aflatoxicosis with symptoms including vomiting, abdominal pains and jaundice. This study was aimed at investigating the effect of traditional processes of Hausa koko (millet porridge) and “ekoegbeme" (cooked dehulled maize grit) on aflatoxin. The level of aflatoxin G1, G2, B1, B2 and total aflatoxins were measured at the end of the various processing stages of each food product by HPLC method. The processing stage that produced significant reduction was identified by using ANOVA. Overall, processing of “ekoegbeme” resulted in more aflatoxin B1 and total aflatoxin reduction than the processes involved in preparing Hausa koko. Fermentation of millet during Hausa koko processing resulted in 13.97 % and 4.82 % reduction in aflatoxin B2 and B1 respectively with total aflatoxin reduction of 4.9% while cooking of the fermented filtrate to Hausa koko resulted in 0.70 % and 1.85 % reduction in aflatoxin B2 and B1 respectively as well as 1.49 % reduction in total aflatoxin. However the steeping of the millet caused an increase of 11.88% and 7.67% in the aflatoxin B1 and total aflatoxin respectively. The dehulling of the maize during preparation of ekoegbeme resulted in 100% reduction in aflatoxins while cooking of the maize resulted in 11.52 % reduction in total aflatoxin as well as 5.95 %, 3.97 %, 41.53 % reduction in aflatoxin B1, B2 and G1 respectively. There was no aflatoxin G2 detected in the maize and millet samples used for the investigations.