Fungal Biodeterioration, Aflatoxin Contamination, and Nutrient Value of “Suya Spices”

This work aimed to analyze the nutrient values, examine the biodeteriorating fungi biota, and analyze the mycotoxin contents of "Suya spices." Fungi with highest percentage occurrence on all the samples are Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus parasiticus, Aspergillus ochraceus, Fusarium sp., Rhizopus stolonifer, yeast, and Trichoderma koningii. Nutrient composition of the samples is significantly different statistically (P < 0.05) with high protein (9.53% to 13.17%), fiber (9.27 to 13.17%), carbohydrate (46.27% to 50.90%), and ash (8.47% to 9.70%) contents but low moisture (9.03% to 9.47%) and fat (9.77% to 13.53%) contents. Aflatoxin analysis of the samples revealed that they all contain aflatoxin in varying amount but no detectible aflatoxin content in the control. 59.54% of the detected aflatoxin is aflatoxin B1 with highest recorded in Agbowo, Mokola, and Sango samples (i.e., 28.03, 22.44, and 13.8 μg/kg, resp.). 4.78% of the aflatoxin is aflatoxin B2 which is only found in Sango and Mokola samples (3.59 and 2.6 μg/kg, resp.). 32.76% of aflatoxin is aflatoxin G1 with the highest found in Agbowo and Mokola samples (i.e., 18.63 and 10.41 μg/kg, resp.). 2.93% of the aflatoxin is aflatoxin G2 which is only detected in Sango and Agbowo samples (i.e., 1.19 and 2.65 μg/kg, resp.).