Level Of Aflatoxin In Sorghum Injera From Eastern Ethiopia

Sorghum Injera is a predominant human feed in Eastern Ethiopia. However, most of farmersrnin Hararghe, Eastern Ethiopia, store their grain in underground pit which is very conducive tornproduce Aflatoxin by Aspergillus Species. Thus, consumption of Injera made from sorghumrngrain contaminated with aflatoxin is a potential risk for human health. Aflatoxin is highlyrngenotoxic, mutagenic, and hepatocarcinogenic substances. Therefore, this study wasrnconducted with an objective to determine total aflatoxins in Sorghum Injera sample fromrnEastern Ethiopia. The analysis of the study was conducted on thirteen (30) duplicate samplesrncollected from five districts of Harrghe, Eastern Ethiopia. The main analytical techniquernimplemented for aflatoxin analysis was Immunoaffinity sample clean-up and Shimadzu Highrnperformance liquid chromatography using fluorescent as a detector. Questionnaire alsornimplemented to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) aspect of the participants.rnThe study revealed that 66.67% of the samples were contaminated with aflatoxins; B1, B2,rnG1 and G2 above lower limit of quantification. The maximum concentration of aflatoxinrnfound in sorghum Injera sample was 53.33μg/kg with an overall mean of 11.2 μg/kg. On thernother hand, the average AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, AFG2 concentrations were 4.63 μg kg-1, 0.406rnμg kg-1, 5.75 μg kg-1 and 0.856 μg kg-1 respectively. The current result showed that therernwas significant contamination of Sorghum Injera samples with Aflatoxins. 33.33% of samplernanalyzed were unsafe for direct human consumption as per the FDA maximum tolerablernintake limit (exceed 20 μg/kg). In addition, 53.33% of sample analysed were unsafe forrnhuman feed as per EU maximum tolerable intake level (exceed 4 μg/kg). The majorrnunderlined factor for the heavy contamination of sorghum injera with aflatoxin in the regionrnmight be because of poor Pre-and postharvest management of sorghum grain, mainly, thernstorage of sorghum grain in the un-sanitized underground pit was very favourable for thernproduction aflatoxins by Aspergillus mould: A. flavus, A. parasiticus and A. nomius. Thus,rnAdequate pre- and postharvest management, adequate grain storage and suitable food processingrnsteps shall be followed to get rid of aflatoxins from ingesting it along with food so that we canrnprevent the occurrence of disease with aflatoxins. The result of knowledge, attitude and practicernassessment in this study revealed that, awareness of mold growth and formation of mycotoxinrnis very low among house holders, retailers and Farmers

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