Fungus in food - do not let it take your life!

Fungus is microscopic microorganism that can grow in food. Most fungus is hazardous as it will produce mycotoxin, resulting food poisoning.

"Myco" means fungus and "toxin" means poison. It is a metabolit produced by hazardous fungus, such as Aflatoxin. Aflatoxin is a mycotoxin group that is form naturally from particular fungus such as Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus.

There are a few conditions that causing food contaminated with Aflatoxin:

1. Food that exposed to high environment moisture, in a long time.

2. Food that is stored in pile, without good ventilation.

What are the food that potentially contaminated with Aflatoxin?

1. Beans - groundnuts, pistachio, peanut butter, almond soybean, peanut, sunflower, cotton seed, walnut, coconut and Brazil nut.
2. Cereals - Corn, rice, wheat, soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower oil and sorghum

3. Spices - Chili, black pepper, turmeric, ginger, coriander

4. milk of animals that are fed with contaminated feed, in the form of aflatoxin M1.

Exposure to Aflatoxin at a higher dosage and for a long time could lead to Aflatoxicosis (which could be life threatening) that cause liver cancer. Knowing the seriousness of Aflatoxin contamination, we should learn to handle our food in order to avoid it. below are the advises from the experts -

1. Keep food in a dry place and hermetic, according to the storage instruction stated at label. make sure the store in inn good ventilation and with low humidity.

2. Choose good quality beans or cereals carefully while purchasing.

3. Avoid taking food which has the signs of spoilage such as fungus growth or physically changed on food.

4. Threw away food that is contaminated with fungus. Even when fungus is removed, mycotoxin would be still remained in the contaminated food. Thus, make sure the contaminated food is not to be used to process / prepare food.

Contaminated food not only resulting food poisoning but also could be fatal. As a responsible food handler, we should take note on this matter and do any possible practice to avoid it.

Credit: 

1. Sir Sazly Tulih
2. World Health Organization
3. National Center for Biotechnology Information
4. Science Direct