Fungal contamination and aflatoxin content of maize, moringa and peanut foods from rural subsistence farms in South Haiti

Mycotoxins are toxic, low molecular weight compounds produced by fungi. Among them, aflatoxins are the most carcinogenic and they mainly impact on rural communities of developing countries. The present study supplies data on mycobiota and aflatoxin contamination in the most common food products consumed in Haiti. The study concerns analyses performed on 49 samples of meals and seeds collected in South Haiti and tested for fungal occurrence and aflatoxin content by HPLC-DAD technique. The results revealed that three main fungal genera affected Haitian food products: Aspergillus spp. (Section Flavi and Nigri), followed by Penicillium spp. and Fusarium spp. Aflatoxin was present in more than half of the samples of maize (Zea mays L.) kernels (55%), maize meal (57%) and moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) seeds (64%), and in 25% of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) samples. The tested food products were mostly contaminated by aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) followed by aflatoxin B2 (AFB2), while no aflatoxins type G were detected. The total concentration of aflatoxins in the positive samples was 228 mg/kg on average, i.e., fifty-seven and eleven times higher than the maximum levels allowed in Europe and USA, respectively. Both the presence of aflatoxigenic fungi and aflatoxin contamination in maize kernels seemed to be related to agricultural practices, such as weed control, irrigation and growing cycle length. These findings suggest that the Haitian population is strongly exposed to aflatoxin risk. This risk could be reduced by exploiting simple and accessible farming strategies for minimizing mycotoxin contamination, at least for maize.