A reliable and rapid method has been developed for the determination of aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) in four kinds of feedstuffs comprising broken rice, peanuts, corn, and fishmeal. A sample preparation was carried out based on the QuEChERS method with the exclusion of the clean-up step. In this study, AFB₁ was extracted using acetonitrile/methanol (40/60 v/v), followed by partitioning with sodium chloride and magnesium sulfate. High-performance liquid chromatography with precolumn derivatization and fluorescence detection was performed. The coefficients of determination were greater than 0.9800. Throughout the developed method, the recovery of all feedstuffs achieved a range of 82.50-109.85% with relative standard deviation lower than 11% for all analytes at a concentration of 20-100 ng/g. The limit of detection (LOD) ranged from 0.2 to 1.2 ng/g and limit of quantitation (LOQ) ranged from 0.3 to 1.5 ng/g. The validated method was successfully applied to a total of 120 samples. The occurrence of AFB₁ contamination was found at the following concentrations: in broken rice (0.44-2.33ng/g), peanut (3.97-106.26ng/g), corn (0.88-50.29 ng/g), and fishmeal (1.06-10.35 ng/g). These results indicate that the proposed method may be useful for regularly monitoring AFB₁ contamination in feedstuffs.

Occurrence of mycotoxins in staple foods is a major threat to attaining food safety in developing countries. The study investigated multi-mycotoxin contamination for the first time in Nepalese maize along with the incidence of molds in 45 samples of maize used as human food from 45 districts of Nepal. The samples were analyzed quantitatively for the presence of five different mycotoxins (total aflatoxins (AF), total fumonisins (FUM), ochratoxin (OT), zearalenone (ZEA) and (DON) deoxynivalenol) using the competitive direct ELISA technique. The most frequent occurrences were for DON (100%) and AF (78%) followed by FUM and ZEA (both 76%) and OT (62%). Interestingly, all the samples contained at least two mycotoxins while at least three or more mycotoxins were found in 87% of the samples. The most commonly reported binary, ternary and quaternary combinations were DON+AF, AF+FUM+DON and AF+FUM+ZEA+DON, respectively. The mean percentage kernel mold infection was 35.33% with Fusarium, Aspergillus, Rhizopus and Penicillium genera being the predominant molds. Six different species of Aspergillus and a single species of Fusarium were identified. The estimated daily intake, margin of exposure and risk of liver cancer from consuming maize were 30.46 ng/kg bw/day and 5.58 and 0.38 cancer cases/year/100,000 population, respectively. Since maize is the second-most consumed cereal in Nepal, the contamination levels of various mycotoxins and the incidence of molds identified in the study suggests that stricter control is needed to safeguard the health of the substantial population consuming maize as a staple diet.

The growing interest in environmentally friendly food packaging has led to the development of bio-edible alternatives. This study developed novel, edible, active films and coatings to enhance the shelf life of fresh products. Crude bioactive algal extract (CBAE) was obtained from the ethanol extraction of Spirogyra sp. and incorporated into chitosan-based films and coatings at varying concentrations. The CBAE was rich in phenolic compounds and had antioxidant activity and potential antibacterial properties. The films were prepared using a solvent-casting method and characterized for their biochemical and physical properties. The incorporation of CBAE enhanced the antioxidant activity and improved the tensile strength of the films by 80%. Additionally, film transparency and water vapor permeability were reduced by 13% and 50%, respectively, compared to the control. The developed CBAE coating solution exhibited biocompatibility with human colon adenocarcinoma (HT-29) and mouse subcutaneous connective tissue (L929) fibroblast cells. A shelf-life evaluation using a coating-dipping method on okra showed that the CBAE-coated samples maintained better weight retention and firmness than the uncoated samples over 5 days of storage at ambient temperature. Based on these findings, the CBAE-based edible films and coatings could serve as sustainable alternatives for extending the shelf life of fresh products.