ASSESSMENT OF AFLATOXIN CONTAMINATION IN INFANT FOOD SUPPLEMENTS USED IN DIFFERENT FEEDING PATTERNS By NAWAL

Aflatoxins are potent carcinogens which have serious biological activities even when present at low concentrations, thus are capable of producing health problems in humans and animals. Their occurrence in food should be regarded as dangerous because of their capability to produce toxicity and carcinogfllCity in addition to teratogenic and mutagenic effects. Contamination of baby food should be of particular concern, especially in a rich country like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where different varieties of baby food are available and accessible to all infants and children. In addition to that, it has been reported that the young have a greater sensitivity to aflatoxins than the old. Because of this, this study considered some kinds of baby food with an effort to detect the presence of aflatoxins and their possible dietary exposure in infants. For this purpose, a pilot survey (in a form of a questionnaire) was carried out on mothers who frequented the primary health care clinics in Al Ain, UAE, during September/October 1989. The main objectives of the questionnaire were to determine the weight and height of infants and to reveal the commonly practiSed infant feeding patterns, in order to determine the variety of supplementary foods used. Such supplements were considered for the aflatoxin assessment in this study. The information obtained from the data generated by the questionnaire showed that 3.5% of the infants depended exclusively on artificial feeding, which consisted mainly of baby milk formulae,