Quality and safety evaluations of commonly consumed foods stuff from Dawanau market, Kano State, Nigeria

Ensuring food quality and safety is central to achieving sustainable global food security. This study investigated the quality and safety of cowpea, maize, yam chips, groundnut, melon and smoke-dried fishes from Dawanau market in Kano State. Total aflatoxin (TA), proximate compositions, microbial analysis, physical and entomological status were conducted following the official protocols of Association of Analytical Chemists. Impurity level ranged from 0.12 to 2.80% accounting for smoked dried fish and groundnut respectively. While the highest bacteria load (2.7 × 106 cfu/g) in smoked dried fish and the highest fungi load (7.2 × 105 cfu/g) in groundnut, the commonly isolated and identified bacteria and fungi were respectively E. coli and Aspergillus species. Total aflatoxin contaminations was highest (278.08 μg/kg and 7.99 μg/kg) respectively for groundnut and melon; however, both had <10% moisture contents. After sorting, washing, and drying, a significant reduction in total aflatoxin contamination was observed in all food samples. The highest impact of sorting (62.54%) and wash-dried (73.33%) was recorded for maize, however, groundnut TA contamination remained in the three-digit range despite sorting, washing, and drying measures. It is therefore, important to enforce routine checks on foodstuffs in markets, while also, sorting, washing and drying should be encouraged as a way forward to minimize the level of total aflatoxin contaminations