Abstract:
Undemutrition among children under five years old is still a problem in many developing countries including Kenya. Kerio Valley of Elgeyo Marakwet County is among the regions with high stunting rates in Kenya. Mycotoxin contamination of complementary foods has been suggested to cause undemutrition. Sorghum is one of the basic ingredients used to prepare complementary foods. This study, therefore, aimed to; document children under five years caregivers’ knowledge of aflatoxin and fumonisin contamination in sorghum alongside their postharvest handling and storage practices of sorghum and detennine the effects of fermentation on aflatoxin and fumonisin levels in sorghum grain and flour. A cross-sectional study was conducted to obtain both qualitative and quantitative data from 374 caregivers. Multistage sampling procedmes were used to select study participants. Overall, majority of the caregivers had poor knowledge (61.8%) about mycotoxin contamination and poor postharvest handling and storage practices of sorghum (74.5%). The caregiver's knowledge about mycotoxins was significantly associated with age [(AOR=4.629, p <.00l], education level [(AOR=0.275, p =.OOl], marital status [(AOR=l5.l87, p =.0l2] and household monthly income [(AOR=2.623, p <.00l]. Furthermore, the caregiver‘s age [(AOR=3.845, p =.003], education level [(AOR=O.l96, p <.0Ol)], monthly income [(AOR=3.29l, p =.OO2] and knowledge of mycotoxin contamination of sorghum [AOR, 5.428, p <.00l] were significantly associated with postharvest handling and storage practices. The mean value for total aflatoxin level in sorghum grains (33.85i26.00) and flour (36.72il9.50) were above l0ppb the regulation limits for aflatoxins. Additionally, fiimonisin mean values for the sorghum grains (1 29018.07) and flour (1 00417.21) samples were above the (l ppm) regulation limit. Type of fennentation (natural and use of Lactobacillus Plantarum) (F=24.287, p=0.00l), type of sample (flour or grain) (F=9.706, p=0.004) and fermentation duration (F: 3.690, p=0.037) contributed significantly to the reduction of aflatoxin and fumonisin levels. In conclusion, poor caregivers’ knowledge coupled with suboptimal post-harvest handling and storage practices may have contributed to high aflatoxin and fumonisin recorded in sorghum grains and flour. This increases the risk of mycotoxin exposure to young children, which could be one of the contributing factors to high stunting rates in Kerio valley. This thus necessitates mitigation measures including sensitization campaigns and social behaviour change communication such as the adoption of fermentation by caregivers of children under five years as one of the complementary foods processing techniques
