WEBINAR Catalyzing the Use of Aflatoxin Control Technologies in Kenya and Ghana NOV 26, 2019 - 09:00 AM TO 11:00 AM EST

1. Summary and recommendations

2. Priorities and strategies for control
• Foods consumed by infants
- Formally and informally marketed cereal-legume blends
• Widely consumed staples, especially maize
• Foods stored and consumed by smallholders in high-aflatoxin areas
- Training and targeted subsidies for cost-effective technologies
- Combining biocontrol with yield-increasing inputs (fertilizer, high-yielding seeds
can improve cost-effectiveness)

3. Strategies to reduce exposure and health impacts
• Promote dietary diversity through nutrition education
• Educate mothers of infants about importance of safe weaning foods
• Promote crops other than maize and groundnut in aflatoxin-prone
areas
• All infants and older unvaccinated individuals should be vaccinated
against hepatitis B virus

4. Markets and regulation as drivers
• Demand for aflatoxin safe food is likely to remain limited outside of
niche markets
• Compliance can be encouraged through enforcement of regulations.
• To improve public health, enforcement must be accompanied by
capacity building of all value chain actors, and support of direct links
to farmers.
• Increase spillovers of private sector led control efforts by educating
producers about health risks of aflatoxin exposure.

5. Improved testing should be combined with action
to reduce overall level and divert to safer uses
• Testing capacity in both the public and private sector can be improved
through verification of test results by independent laboratories.
• Improved testing for aflatoxin should always be accompanied by
programs that reduce the overall level of contamination, and high-
aflatoxin food should be diverted to non-food uses.
• Programs that rely on testing alone to achieve compliance in the
formal sector could increase aflatoxin exposure among low-income
populations who rely on food informal markets.

6. Thank you