Improving Food Safety in Africa Brad Flett - Agricultural Research Council - Grain Crops Institute, Potchefstroom, RSA. President of the African Society of Mycotoxicology Roundtable of aflatoxin experts on “Building a multi-stakeholder approach to mitigate aflatoxin contamination of food and feed” Brussels, Monday 25th January 2016

1. Improving Food Safety in Africa
Prof. Bradley C. Flett
President of the African Society of Mycotoxicology
Senior Researcher (Plant Pathologist)
Agricultural Research Council (South Africa)
Grain Crops Institute

2. African Society of Mycotoxicology
Committee members of the newly established ASM
President of ASM: Prof. Bradley Flett (FlettB@arc.agric.za)
President of ISM: Dr. Antonio Logrieco
Vice President: Prof. Sheila Okoth
Treasurer: Dr. Hanneke Alberts, Secretary: Prof. Olusegun Atanda, Additional members: Dr. Juliet
Akello, Dr. Benoit Gnonlonfin, Prof. Essam Ibraheem

3. ASM Symposium

4. ISM initiates the newly formed ASM
•MYCORED Africa Conference Cape Town 4-6 April 2011
•MYCORED resulted in the initiation of the African Network on
Mycotoxicology
•The 1st African Symposium on Mycotoxicology was organized under the
auspices of the ISM by Prof. Altus Viljoen (Stellenbosch University) and
Prof. Sheila Okoth (University of Nairobi)
•This highly successful meeting was held in Livingstone, Zambia from the
26-28 May 2015 and attended by 80 delegates
•This meeting was a platform to constitute the African Society of
Mycotoxicology

5. Objectives of the ASM
•Promote research on mycotoxins and toxigenic fungi to reduce human and
animal mycotoxin exposure and enhance food safety, increase public awareness
and capacity building
•Promote and improve effective networking and increase collaboration between
all persons concerned with the mycotoxin threat in Africa
•ASM will work together with key organizations and Societies internationally and
within Africa to reduce the African mycotoxin threat
•Gathering and disseminating information on Mycotoxicology throughout Africa
•Providing opportunities for mycotoxicologists to meet and exchange information
of mutual scientific interest every three years at the ASM Symposium

6. ASM Symposium (2015)
Summary of ASM Symposium
Total of 55 oral presentations and 12 posters
5 invited papers on mycotoxins in different regions of Africa – Focus on all
mycotoxins
Many papers covered broad spectrum of mycotoxins
Aflatoxins specifically were discussed in 15 papers and 4 posters
As aflatoxins are Africa’s primary mycotoxin threat one would have
expected more!!

7. Conclusion of Symposium
Broke up into three groups to identify constraints for
mycotoxin research and potential solutions:
 Policies, regulatory aspects and markets
 Capacity building, networking and funding
Awareness, prevention and management of mycotoxins
Many of the concerns raised at this meeting are very similar to various other mycotoxin
meetings I have attended dating back to the Mycoglobe International Conference on
“Reducing impact of mycotoxins in tropical agriculture with impact on health and trade
in Africa” in Ghana 2005. In almost 10 years the very same concerns have not been
adequately addressed.

8. Regulation, policies and markets
Regulation:
Lack of accredited laboratories – translates to regulation enforcement challenges
Lack of enforcement capacity to handle food safety (including mycotoxins)
Lack of co-ordination (national and continental)
Risk assessment capacity for African countries (daily intake levels)
Need for evidence informed regulatory limits
Food security vs Food safety
Subsistence farmers vs Commercial scale producers

9. Regulation, policies and markets
Policies:
Need for co-ordinating body for food safety in Africa
Harmonisation of regulation limits based on risk assessments
Many countries have no food safety policies – need to be addressed
Alternative use of contaminated material – avoid it re-entering the food
chain
Inclusion of mycotoxin safety in product labelling
Policy on contaminated crop replacements

10. Regulation, policies and markets
Markets:
How to deal with informal domestic markets
Regulation of informal markets?
Limited consumer awareness regarding mycotoxins.

11. Potential solutions regarding regulation,
policies and markets
Develop both infrastructure and human capacity to empower African researchers to
work within the constraints they have
Dialogue with governments regarding mycotoxins
Policies
Regulatory limits
Regulation enforcement
Certification of aflatoxin free/low products – Aflatoxin-free trademark?
Incentives to farmers producing quality products
Sensitised awareness – all role players

12. Capacity Building (human and infrastructure),
networking and funding
Human capacity:
Inadequate competencies for African research conditions
Poor communication of research opportunities
Many students trained in extremely sophisticated labs which does not
mirror the labs in their home countries – frustrations
Loss of African Scientists
Improved recognition for African scientists

13. Potential solutions regarding human capacity
building in Africa
Training people for mycotoxin analysis and maintenance of
equipment
Identify the need and improve the competency of analysts
throughout Africa
Training trainers – analysts, extension services and research staff
Maintaining African scientists in Africa for Africa
Improved recognition for African scientists and
extension officers inputs
Empower people through ownership – not
meagre technicians!!

14. Capacity Building (human and infrastructure),
networking and funding
Infrastructure capacity:
Under-resourced laboratories (equipment)
Inappropriate equipment
Poor knowledge of available infrastructure in Africa
Poor maintenance (in-lab and supplier support)
Equipment positioned in inappropriate locations –
funders and policies

15. Potential solutions regarding equipment
capacity building in Africa
Acquisition of appropriate equipment or link researchers to
Institutes with appropriate equipment
Funding
Establish regional or reference labs with qualified personnel eg.
aBecA-ILRI Hub, ILRI, Nairobi, Kenya
Survey and inventory of available
Infrastructure in Africa
Improve equipment maintenance

16. Capacity Building (human and infrastructure),
networking and funding
Networking:
Poor networking with limited opportunities in Africa
Poor communication between research groups in different countries
Africa
Competition between funding agencies
Lack of opportunities – African congresses and symposia
Funding of African scientists to attend congresses and
symposia
Inventory of what is being done where?

17. Potential solutions regarding networking in
Africa
ASM, PACA etc play an important role in improving networking
in Africa but is this adequate?
Funding and sponsorships of meetings
ASM to still set up website and will link to other existing
mycotoxin related links
Improve communications via new and
existing communication technologies

18. Capacity Building (human and infrastructure),
networking and funding
Funding:
Limited or lack of funding
Poor awareness of potential funding opportunities
Prioritisation of interventions for limited funding
Primarily reliant on international funding
agencies

19. Potential solutions regarding funding in Africa
International and local collaborations
Optimise existing capacity
Awareness of funding opportunities
Prioritise interventions needed for
each scenario

20. Awareness, prevention and management of
mycotoxins
Awareness:
Inadequate focus on target populations (entire value chain)
Inadequate interactions through value chain
Improve communication methods
Possibility to create unnecessary panic
situation

21. Potential solutions improving mycotoxin
awareness in Africa
Define target populations/persons in the entire value chain
Be sensitive to peoples reactions to awareness programs
Role-players in value chain must assist in awareness programs
Communication methods (radio, open days, institutions,
extension services, leader awareness and cell phone
technologies)
Inter-society/institution networks – mouthpiece
Get policy makers and media involved to draw
attention to mycotoxin threats

22. Awareness, prevention and management of
mycotoxins
Prevention:
Lack of knowledge and access to application of technologies
Lack of adequate survey and weather data for predictions
Lack of incentives to apply control measures?
Food insecurity – primary foods and social
dogmas on food preference
Impacts of climate change
Political will to ameliorate farmers losses

23. Potential solutions for improving mycotoxin
prevention in Africa
Training and capacity building
Make important information available to value chain players
Creation and implementation of integrated mycotoxin control
interventions – no silver bullet approach will be sustainable
Develop integrated management systems for various value
chain scenarios
Government mindset and intervention
Improve research and extension functions

24. Awareness, prevention and management of
mycotoxins
Management:
Cost of mycotoxin testing for farmers and other role-players in
the value chain
Poor value chain arrangement (consumption before being
regulated)
High cost of surveillance and monitoring
Lack of political will to fund and put resources
into management
Limited capacity

25. Potential solutions for improving mycotoxin
management in Africa
Partnerships and collaborations
Need for cheaper reliable screening kits
Regional extension laboratories
Inventory of management practices used in Africa
Alternative uses for contaminated grain?
Development of region or farm specific
Integrated Management Systems for entire
value chain

26. Conclusions
Improved food safety in Africa:
Needs government buy in and extent of problem needs to be determined and
highlighted to decision makers
Needs farmer buy in and a financial premium for better quality products is needed
Abovementioned concerns and solutions are all linked
Development of area and farm specific IDM systems
Communication of available technologies
Potential research questions keep arising
Concern: Focus on aflatoxins but what about synergistic effects of other mycotoxins –
SA/Kenya research
Mainstreaming food safety programs in the education system throughout Africa

27. Acknowledgements
Firstly Francois for his visit to the ARC which got me involved in this meeting
PAEPARD for bringing me to Brussels all the way from South Africa
My colleagues at the ARC that keep the flag flying while I am not in office
My ASM committee members and all Symposium attendants for your inputs into our
presentation
Meshack Obonyo for the beautiful photographs
Finally thanks to the audience and hope to see more of you at the next ASM Symposium in 2018