The Trend of Aflatoxin Contamination Levels in Groundnuts from 2008-2018 in The Gambia

Aflatoxins are toxic and carcinogenic fungal metabolites. Aflatoxin B 1 is the most toxic compound and has been classified as a Group I carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). This paper reports on a decade long analysis of a total of 1168 groundnut samples brought to the Aflatoxin and Food Chemistry laboratory of the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) and analyzed for their aflatoxin content using a Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). The results indicate that 58% of the entire samples during the period are within the acceptable limit of the Codex Alementarius which is <15 (ppb). A fluctuating rise and fall in the levels of aflatoxin with the highest mean of 112 ppb observed in 2011 and the lowest 8.55 ppb in 2018. Out of 103 samples in 2018, 81% where found to be within the permissible level (<15 ppb) of the Codex Alementarius. The aflatoxin control intervention programs are geared toward improving the market value of groundnuts from The
Gambia on the international market.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Not applicable

The datasets used in this study are openly available at [repository link] and the source code is available on GitHub at [GitHub link].

This work did not receive any external funding.