A Comparative Study of Fungal and Some Aflatoxin Contents of Freshly Fried and Stored <i>Sallah</i>Meat from Danbatta Local Government Area of Kano State, Nigeria

A comparative study of Fungi (yeast and moulds) and their toxic metabolites was carried out on offal and muscles of freshly fried and stored Sallah meats from rams, bulls, goats and camels slaughtered for sacrifice in Danbatta Local Government Area, Kano State, Nigeria. The objective was to determine the effects of frying and four weeks storage at ambient temperatures on the mycological loads of the fried and stored meats. A total of seventy two (72) samples of muscles and offal were collected from six different and randomly selected households that slaughtered and fried any of the four animals during that period. The samples were analyzed immediately as freshly fried, and then stored for a period of four weeks during which analyses were conducted at the second and fourth weeks. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare between the fungal loads and the toxin contents in the stored meat. Results revealed the presence of Mucor, Rhizopus stolonifer, Aspergillus niger, Saccharomycetes, Penicilium spp and Aspergillus flavus;and that, Aspergillus flavus and Mucor were the highest in the frequency of occurrence among the meat samples. The fungal counts expressed as colony forming units (cfu) per gram of meat, ranged from lowest of 0.43 × 103 and the highest of 5.40 × 103 cfu/g in offal of camels and goats, respectively. The results of analyses for aflatoxins revealed the presence of the four types of aflatoxins namely: B1, B2, G1 and G2, in very few of the samples analyzed. The concentrations, expressed in ppb, were in the order of B1 > B2 > G2 > G1 in the muscles and offal of the slaughtered animals;and the toxins were far below the lethal doses recorded in literature. It was concluded that, the fungal organisms were detected in the fried Sallah meats, but not in significant numbers as to cause health risks to the consumers within the short storage time.