Health benefits
We know that Aflasafe dramatically cuts the amount of deadly aflatoxin in food, getting it down to zero or to very low levels. But why is that so important?
Maybe the most obvious benefit is that we could prevent severe outbreaks of aflatoxin poisoning, like the one that killed over 120 people in Kenya in 2004. But these tragedies are fortunately rare, and these deaths are only the tip of the aflatoxin iceberg.
Keeping aflatoxin out of our food, as we can do with Aflasafe, will also prevent aflatoxin building up in our bodies over months and years, and help us avoid a whole range of health problems down the line:
Eliminating aflatoxin means getting rid of one of the major causes of cancer in Africa. Liver cancer is the third most common cancer on our continent, and at least 30% of cases are down to aflatoxin. Liver cancer is also incredibly deadly, killing about 95% of its victims, so by stopping it we could save tens of thousands of lives each year.
We can protect our children from stunting and blighted development due to the damage caused by aflatoxin.
We can prevent harm to our immune systems. We can never know the exact causes of all sickness, but many diseases are always happy to see aflatoxin since it makes us generally weaker against them. We know that it contributes to HIV/AIDS and malaria, and makes vaccines less powerful.
We can make sure we are better able to digest food by preventing damage to the intestine, reducing malnutrition and helping us get proper nourishment.
These benefits extend to almost everyone in Africa, since we nearly all have some aflatoxin in our bodies. Aflatoxin exposure starts even before birth, and continues and builds up throughout our lives. By using Aflasafe to get this toxic killer out of our food we can break this cycle.
Economic benefits
Aflasafe is highly cost-effective, reaping rich rewards for farmers and the food industry, and opening up new opportunities for individual businesses and national economies alike.
Aflasafe is cheap to apply, costing only around USD 12–20 per hectare and fetching a premium on growing markets. Early studies show an excellent return on investment for farmers and other agricultural businesses.
Aflasafe offers more trade opportunities, opening up export markets with stringent aflatoxin controls, such as the European Union. It is estimated that reducing aflatoxin contamination would add USD 281 million each year to groundnut exports in Senegal alone.
The rapidly-expanding poultry and livestock industries are keen to get their hands on aflatoxin-safe maize. Used in feed, it boosts productivity and reduces mortality in chickens by 40%.
By reducing sickness, disability and early death due to conditions like liver cancer, immune system suppression and stunting, Aflasafe can help to reduce not only individual suffering but also the burden of healthcare costs and lost working income for families and nations.
Poultry and livestock
Feed made with Aflasafe-treated grain makes poultry and livestock more productive and profitable, even when margins are slim. It also ensures that milk, meat and eggs are low in aflatoxin and safe for human consumption.
Chickening out
The poultry industry is growing fast, and maize is the main ingredient in poultry feed. But eating food contaminated with aflatoxin is not only bad for humans – it also has some serious effects on our feathered friends, including:
killing birds
reducing their growth and ability to take in nutrients
lowering their fertility and egg production
damaging their immunity to disease
stopping vaccines working properly
All this adds up to unhealthy, slow-growing birds, and it’s a common problem: in Nigeria, 62% of commercial poultry feed is contaminated by aflatoxin above safe levels.
The Aflasafe solution
Profit margins tend to be slender in the poultry industry, and maize for feed accounts for up to 70% of total costs. So can poultry producers afford to pay even the smallest premium for Aflasafe-treated grain?
The answer is yes.
Aflasafe-treated maize substantially improves growth and fertility, and in chickens it cuts mortality rates by 40%. It also eliminates the need to use toxin binders in feed, which makes for a small saving. All this has a healthy impact on profits as well as the chickens: a study in Nigeria has shown an increase in profits of USD 3,200 for 10,000 broiler (meat) chickens over each eight-week rearing period.
Poultry producers who have tried out low-aflatoxin maize are now happy to pay 4–20% more for it, and with increased profits they get an excellent return on their investment.
Meanwhile, depending on yields, farmers or traders need a premium of around 1–4% to cover the cost of Aflasafe, so they get a good return too. This calculation includes farmers also using Aflasafe to treat the maize they are growing to eat at home – so the extra income pays for their families to be protected from aflatoxin as well.
A piggy problem
The swine industry is growing fast too, particularly in Kenya and Uganda. Among livestock, pigs are especially vulnerable to aflatoxin, showing very similar effects of reduced growth, poor health, and increased mortality. As with other animals, pigs accumulate aflatoxin in their meat, creating a potential food safety problem for farmers and consumers.
Of milk and men (and aflatoxin)
When dairy cows eat aflatoxin-contaminated grain, it is bad news for the farmer as it can seriously reduce milk production. But it is bad news for everyone else too, since some of the toxin passes through into the milk (the chemical changes slightly, but has the same harmful effects). Milk is the highest-risk animal product, taking up much more toxin than meat or eggs.
Yet milk is a major part of many African diets. In Kenya, for example, milk is the second-largest food expense for urban households. Young children are given milk – and need it to build strong bones and teeth – making the presence of aflatoxin a particular worry.
A study in Nairobi that tested hundreds of milk samples from households and retailers found that every single one contained aflatoxin, and 63% had levels of toxin over the safe limits recommended by the European Union. Local children were also measured, and 41% were suffering from stunting and poor growth.
It’s an alarming situation, but Aflasafe provides a straightforward solution. It drastically reduces the amount of aflatoxin in maize, well into safe levels for food or feed, making the amount that reaches milk negligible – and making milk once again safe and healthy for everyone.
