Food borne fungi are key responsible of food insecurity in tropical Africa. They cause post-harvest losses, and they affect food safety via the production of numerous mycotoxins, both pre- and post-harvest. Between 40 to 50% of total crop productions are lost annually in the tropics because of fungal contamination due to bad, insufficient or inappropriate preservation and storage conditions. Numerous spoiling filamentous fungi are producers of several toxic compounds called mycotoxins, referring to their fungal origin and toxic activity. Well-known mycotoxins are the aflatoxins, which are insidious liver toxins and highly carcinogenic metabolites produced by Aspergillus species often growing in or on grains and nuts consumed by humans. Other notable mycotoxins include ochratoxins, ergot alkaloids, fumonisins and trichothecens, all of which have significant impact on human food supplies, either via direct food consumption, or via meat and milk of animals fed by contaminated products. Numerous mycotoxins produced by Aspergillus, Penicillium, Alternaria and Fusarium species are insane killers of hundreds people in the tropics where the diversity of causal fungi contrasts with the scarcity of research facilities to secure detailed documentation and diagnosis.
In this subtopic, participants will debates the results of their works related to the taxonomy, ecology, distribution of food-associated fungi along with studies on the related mycotoxin. You are invited to submit any abstract that demonstrate damage of filamentous fungi on tropical African harvested crops, and strategic management practice in vogue locally or developed by scientists to prevent and face food spoiling and associated mycotoxins.