Aflatoxin levels in sunflower seeds, feeds, seed cakes, oil and cow milk collected from Singida

Aflatoxin contamination in various food, animal products and animal feed pose health concerns to human that rely on consumption of these products. The study analysed the levels of aflatoxin contamination in sunflower seeds, seed products and raw cow milk collected from Singida. The samples of sunflower seeds (40), seed cake (16), sunflower based seed cake feeds (20), oil (20) and raw milk from cow feed on sunflower based seed cake feeds (37) were analysed for aflatoxin using HPLC. of the analysed raw cow milk samples 83.78% were contaminated with AFMi ranging between 0.065 to 2.007 ng L''of which (86.5%) exceeded the EC and TFDA tolerable limits of 0.05 ng mL’1. About 13 (65%) samples of sunflower based animal feed were contaminated with AFBi ranging between 2.184 to 20.465 ng g"1, of which 61.53% exceeded the EC, TBS and TFDA tolerable limits of 5 ng g’ for animal feed. Nine (53%) samples of sunflower seed cakes were contaminated with AFBi ranging between 1.004 to 11.030 ng g'1, with 3 (25%) samples exceeding the EC limits of 5 ng g'1. Four (10%) of sunflower seed samples were contaminated with AFBi ranging between 0.428 to 218.139 ng g'1, with 3(75%) samples exceeding the EC limits of 2 ng g'1 for oil nuts. Seventeen (80.9%) raw sunflower oil samples were contaminated with aflatoxins ranging between 0.255 to 2.555 ng ml/'with 3 (17.65%) samples exceeding the EC, limits of 2 ng mL'1 for edible oil. Therefore, it is evident that the raw milk and unrefined sunflower oil from Singida are posing safety concern for human consumptions. Therefore, it is important to conduct time to time aflatoxin surveillance on these kinds of food to ensure human health safety.