Observability of food safety losses in maize: Evidence from Kenya

Like many other quality attributes, food safety tends to degrade after harvest, but unlike losses in quantity and are not readily observable by market actors. This implies the absence of incentives address specifically. To extent that is correlated with valued may affect price indirectly, partially correcting this information failure. We analyze aflatoxin, a carcinogenic fungal contaminant, visible data from 1500 maize samples associated consumer surveys collected clients small-scale hammer mills rural Kenya. find while both increase storage duration, only rewarded higher prices. There no correlation between implying an manage aspect loss. Further, two qualities on which were collected, one most strongly aflatoxin affects prices consumers’ subjective assessment least. Providing consumers about grain attributes contamination could allow direct contaminated uses minimize exposure improve for provision market.