Combating aflatoxin contamination in nuts
Twin is working with producer partners to manage aflatoxin contamination, the public health scourge affecting Africa’s groundnut industry.
The contaminant aflatoxin is partly responsible for the collapse of the continent’s groundnut export industry in the 1970s and 1980s. Twin has been working with partner organisations on the ground in southern Africa to reinvigorate this industry and in particular to address aflatoxin contamination, which poses a significant public health risk, as well as acting as a barrier to trade.
Background
Aflatoxins are carcinogenic by-products of a fungus (Aspergillus sp.) that grows on crops such as maize, paprika and groundnuts as a result of poor pre- and post-harvest practices.
In the 1960s Africa accounted for around 75% of the global raw peanut trade, but by 2005 this had collapsed to just 5%. The collapse of the trade was due to increased competition from America, China and Argentina, combined with stricter aflatoxin controls in Europe.
In the years since the collapse of Africa’s groundnut market there has been little investment to control aflatoxin. The continuing failure to address this issue at government level has significant public health implications. The risks associated with aflatoxin consumption include liver cancers, impaired growth (stunting) in children under five and suppression of the immune system.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 4.5 billion people are chronically exposed to aflatoxin in their diets. The CDC and the World Health Organisation estimate that around 80% of liver cancers are related to aflatoxin consumption and there are causal links with hepatitus and other non-communicable liver diseases.
Twin’s work
Twin aims to revitalise the groundnut sector and enhance the livelihoods of smallholder nut farmers in Malawi and southern Africa by improving the quality, reliability and volume of nut products for the export and domestic markets.
Twin has been working on the ground with smallholder organisations like NASFAM in Malawi and IKURU in Mozambique to combat aflatoxin contamination of nut products, reducing health risks and ensuring EU standards for exports are met.
Developing integrated supply chains which link the farmers to value added markets is key. These provide visibility from the farm gate to retail-shelf, enabling feedback on issues such as crop quality and market requirements. Traceability has allowed the most severe cases of contamination to be identified and preventative measures to be put in place. It has also facilitated improvements in crop storage and the introduction of mechanised processing – all of which help significantly reduce aflatoxin contamination.
Twin also recently set up Afri-Nut Ltd, a landmark groundnut business in Malawi, which brings processing under the control of its producer owners, generating additional income and addressing aflatoxin contamination. Nut products are produced for the domestic market as well as for export. The newly established pan-African initiative, the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) sees Afri-Nut as an example of how a for-profit social investment business has the potential to have an impact on the health status of millions of people.
Next steps
Although research into the potential dangers of aflatoxin has been undertaken, the knowledge has largely remained embedded within the research community. It is estimated that around 60% of peanuts in Malawi, for example, do not enter formal food chain markets. But there is little awareness among smallholder farmers about the consequences of consuming contaminated food.
As well as its ongoing work with producer organisations on the ground, Twin has teamed up with the Southern Africa Trade Hub (SATH) to address Aflatoxin issues in the groundnut supply chain from Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique.
Together, SATH and Twin have conducted an assessment and consider points of aflatoxin ingress, identified appropriate aflatoxin mitigation techniques and the costs and benefits of applying these techniques. Lessons learned from the value chain assessment will be applied to mitigate aflatoxin issues in the SADC region and facilitate trade.
Read the Twin SATH aflatoxin report or download the report summary
Twin has also been working with DFiD Malawi to produce a report on how contaminated nuts can be removed from the food chain in an economically viable manner.
Read the Twin report for DFiD Malawi or download the report summary
Useful organisations and further information
Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA)
Africa-wide approach encouraging collaboration between relevant stakeholders. Twin is member of PACA.
Peanut CRSP
Works to enhance research capability in developing countries and the United States for sustainable peanut production.
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
A non-profit organisation conducting agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. ICRISAT is very involved with research into aflatoxin contamination of groundnuts.
Peanut Information Network System
Related articles and papers:
Scoping economically viable mechanisms that deliberately pull aflatoxin out of human food chains – Andy Stephens and Andrew Emmott, July 2012
Value Chain Approach – Aflatoxin (Groundnuts) Report – Andrew Emmott, Twin, 2012
The Health Economics of Aflatoxin: Global Burden of Disease – Wu et al. 2011
Protective Interventions to Prevent Aflatoxin-Induced Carcinogenesis in Developing Countries – Groopman et al. 2007
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80 per cent of liver cancers are related to aflatoxin consumption in the tropics and sub-tropics
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