Factors controlling mycotoxin contamination in maize and food in the Hebei province, China

Mycotoxins contaminate maize and thus pose a serious economic and health risk. Despite the prevalence of mycotoxins in maize and other crops, the agricultural management system has not yet been fully implemented in China. Thereby, there is an urgent need to implement management programs to control mycotoxin contamination in maize and maize-based feed. Here, we conducted a survey on the traditional maize production and feed processing practices in the Hebei province. We analyzed the factors of fungal infection and subsequent mycotoxin contamination in maize and feed supply chain and management systems. Our results show that the stored maize samples from local feed mills were heavily contaminated with fumonisin, at 9638 μg/kg on the average, and deoxynivalenol, at 996.3 μg/kg on the average. We also found that more than 75.0 % of the farmers followed good agricultural practices, whereas only 38.1 % of the farmers cared for storage conditions. The main factors for mycotoxin contamination included less strict receiving and inspection criteria, inappropriate storage conditions, and poor processing practices. The critical control points were feed mill receiving, storage, and feed processing. Visual quality, moisture contents, and mycotoxin levels in maize and feed were used as monitoring parameters at critical control points. This is the first study to thoroughly explore traditional maize and feed manufacturing practices adopted by farmers.