11 March 2016. Gent, Belgium. Department of Bioanalysis, Laboratory of Food Analysis Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Compilation of the presentations made during the visit and meeting with Prof. Dr. Pharm.D. Sarah De Saeger and doctoral students : Melody Hove, Ugent, University of Zimbabwe (03/01/14 - now), “Human dietary exposure to mycotoxins in Zimbabwe and related risk assessment and management” Cynthia Chilaka, Ugent, McPherson University (01/01/2015 - now), ” Fusarium mycotoxins and their masked forms in Nigerian foods: occurrence and influence of traditional processing methods” Abebe Ayelign (Ethiopia – PhD student at Addis Ababa University, but performing his analysis of biomarkers in urine in my lab)

1. Laboratory of Food Analysis
Prof. Dr. Pharm.D. Sarah De Saeger
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Ghent University

2. Laboratory of Food Analysis:
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
800 students
180 personnel staff
3 departments: - Pharmaceutics
- Pharmaceutical analysis
- Bioanalysis: - Laboratory of Food Analysis
- Laboratory of Toxicology
- Laboratory of Medical Biochemistry
and Clinical Analysis

3. Laboratory of Food Analysis: Prof. dr. Sarah De Saeger:
Post-doctoral researchers:
Dr. Johan Aerts (honorary fellow)
Dr. Natalia Arroyo-Manzanares
Dr. Natalia Beloglazova
Dr. Marthe De Boevre
Dr. José Diana Di Mavungu
Dr. Ellen Heyndrickx
PhD students:
Cynthia Chilaka
Marlies Decleer
Gilke De Middeleer
Karl De Ruyck
Astrid Foubert
Valentina Goftman
Kinga Graniczkowska
Melody Hove
Somar Khalil
Al Ibrahim Traore
Jeroen Walravens
Administrative personnel:
Marianne Bailleul
Annie De Lobelle
Lab technicians:
Kelly Boerjan
Christ’l Detavernier
Tom Devos
Fréderic Dumoulin
Jolien Scheerlinck
Mario Van De Velde
Teaching assistant:
Esther De Rycke

4. Prof. dr. Sarah De Saeger is the founder and coordinator of the MYTOX research
platform. For many years, the research activities in the Laboratory of Food Analysis
have focused on the development and application of various analytical tools (rapid
screening and confirmation) for the determination of mycotoxins in diverse biological
samples (including food, feed, urine, tissues). The Laboratory of Food Analysis is an
accredited laboratory (ISO17025) for multi-mycotoxin analysis in several matrices.
Next to different LC-MS/MS instrumentaria, a new Ultra High-Performance liquid
chromatograph in combination with a Quadrupole Traveling-wave Ion Mobility
Separation (IMS) Time-of-Flight high resolution mass spectrometer (HRMS) instrument
has been recently acquired through funding from the Hercules Foundation. This new
equipment will further strengthen the (un)targeted- and metabolomics-based
research performed in this research group.
Prof. dr. Sarah De Saeger is also member of the Ghent University Committee for
Development Cooperation and she successfully organized short training initiatives
(VLIR-UOS-STI) on mycotoxin analysis in the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 for people
from developing countries. Furthermore, she is promoter of several (Sandwich) PhD
projects with candidates (and promoted ones) from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Cameroon,
Burkina Faso and Malawi.

5. www.mytox.be

6. mycologists
plant
pathologists
food chemists
veterinarians
epidemiologists
medical doctors
analytical chemists

7. MYTOX
Interdisciplinary research platform on mycotoxins and toxigenic
moulds:
- Toxigenic moulds
- Mycotoxins
- Effects on animal health
- Effects on human health
Eleven research laboratories with more than 50 researchers involved.
More information and contacts: www.mytox.be

8. Laboratory of Food Analysis
MYTOX COORDINATION
Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
-Research Group Food Chemistry and Human Nutrition - nutriFOODchem
-Laboratory of Food Microbiology and Food Preservation
-Department of Applied Bioscience Engineering
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
-Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Faculty of Sciences
- Polymer Chemistry and Biomaterials Research Group
- Laboratory for Organic and Biomimetic Chemistry
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
-Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology
-Agro- and Biotechnology
-Laboratory of Brewing and Biochemistry
www.mytox.be

9. Research: Joint Laboratory of
Mycotoxin Research UGent - Shanghai
Jiao Tong University – Chinese Academy
of Sciences – signed during State Visit
of the Belgian King in China (June 2015)
Education: Short Training on
Mycotoxin Analysis – VLIR-UOS,
Summer 2012, 2013, 2014 ….
Many different projects and
PhD students from different
countries (including developing
countries)
International activities initiated by Prof. Sarah De Saeger

10. Ongoing projects and cooperations with Africa:
KEY-topics:
- Training in analytical methods for mycotoxin detection
- Surveys on mycotoxin occurrence
- Biomonitoring studies to assess human mycotoxin exposure
- Influence of traditional food processing on (modified) mycotoxin
occurrence
Countries in Africa with ongoing cooperation:
- Burkina Faso
- Cameroon
- Ethiopia
- Malawi
- Nigeria
- South-Africa
- Zimbabwe

11. • Prof. De Saeger as promotor of defended doctorates with African
candidate:
Emmanuel Njumbe Ediage, UGent, 12/09/2012, “Development of analytical
tools and strategies to assess mycotoxin contamination and exposure: case
study Cameroon”
Limbikani Matumba, UGent, 30/09/2014, “Understanding and tackling the
complexity of the mycotoxin problem in sub-saharan Africa: regulations and
decontamination strategies”

12. • Prof. De Saeger as promotor of ongoing (sandwich) doctorates with
African candidate:
Melody Hove, Ugent, University of Zimbabwe (03/01/14 - now), “Human
dietary exposure to mycotoxins in Zimbabwe and related risk assessment and
management”
Cynthia Chilaka, Ugent, McPherson University (01/01/2015 - now), ” Fusarium
mycotoxins and their masked forms in Nigerian foods: occurrence and
influence of traditional processing methods”
Al Ibrahim Traore, Ugent, (starting 01/06/2016), “The impact of mycotoxin
exposure on malnutrition incidence in Burkina Faso using biomarker analysis”

13. “Human dietary exposure to mycotoxins in Zimbabwe and
related risk assessment and management”
Melody Hove
• Aim
• To develop a science-based reduction
strategy for mycotoxins in locally grown
maize in Zimbabwe such to decrease dietary
exposure of rural subsistence farming
communities to these toxins.

14. Objectives
• To determine mycotoxin contamination of subsistence farmed maize in
Zimbabwe.
• To obtain insight into the possible relationship between agricultural
practices of maize cultivation by rural subsistence farmers and mycotoxin
contamination of the maize.
• To develop a model to predict the occurrence of aflatoxins and fumonisins
in subsistence farmed maize cultivated in Zimbabwe.
• To obtain insight into the exposure of the rural subsistence farming
communities in Zimbabwe to AFB1 and FB1 through consumption of
locally grown maize
related human health risk.
• To provide science based recommendations for modified and sustainable
subsistence farming practices for maize cultivation and mycotoxin
legislation in Zimbabwe

15. Project sites
• Manicaland Province
– Chisengu (region I)
– Nyanga (region IIa)
– Chipinge (region IIb)
– Rusape (region IIb)
– Chisumbanje (region V)
• Mashonaland West
Province
– Chinhoyi (region IIa)
– Karoi (region IIa)
– Kadoma (region IIb)
– Mhondoro (region IIb)
 261 maize samples have been collected from 95 households since December 2014

16. Fusarium mycotoxins and their modified forms in
Nigerian foods: occurrence and influence of
traditional processing methods
Cynthia A. Chilaka
Aim
• To investigate the occurrence of Fusarium
mycotoxins and modified forms in Nigerian staple
crops and their locally processed food products, as
well as the behaviour of Fusarium mycotoxins and
modified forms during traditional processing of food
products

17. Crops:
Maize, sorghum, millet, soybean, castor bean seed,
African locust bean, mesquite seed
Food products:
Fermented beverages (Pito, burukutu),
Traditional spices (dawadawa, ogiri, okpehe),
Staple foods (Gari, lafun, amala),
Infant foods (ogi, soybean powder)
Crops and food products of interest

18. Objectives
• To investigate the occurrence of Fusarium (modified)
mycotoxins forms in Nigerian crops; and their processed
products
• To investigate the effect of traditional processing methods on
the occurrence of Fusarium mycotoxins and modified
mycotoxin
• To identify new, unknown modified mycotoxins in the staple
and processed food products
• To compile guidelines in terms of processing and the
reduction of the mycotoxin content in processed foods in
Nigeria
• To sensitize relevant stakeholders in Nigeria towards an
action plan based on the obtained results

19. Sampling sites
• 5 Agro-ecological zones
• 10 States
• 749 samples were collected in 2015 from randomly selected markets

20. “Evaluating the safety of complementary foods
produced at community level using locally available
Ingredients in Ethiopia”
Sub title done at UGent “Assessment of the levels of
aflatoxin exposure among young children using
urinary aflatoxin biomarkers in Ethiopia”
Abebe Ayelign
Aim:
• Assess aflatoxin exposure among the young children
and to correlate with anthropometric
measurements.

21. Objectives
• Measure the anthropometric measurements of the
young children,
• Identify the possible routes of aflatoxin exposure of
the young children using Food Frequency
Questionnaire (FFQ).
• Determine the levels of urinary aflatoxin (AFB1,
AFB2, AFG1, AFG2, and AFM1) with LC-MS/MS.

22. Sampling sites
• 146 complementary food
(CFs) samples were
collected from 20
woredas in four regional
states (Amhara, Tigray,
Oromia and SSNNP) of
Ethiopia.
• For aflatoxin and
microbiological analysis.
• Morning urine samples
(n= 200, aged 1-4 years)
from 10 woredas in
Amhara and Tigray
regions (100 each region)
were collected in January
2016.
• For urinary aflatoxin
analysis.

23. Training experience (Coördinator) – MYTOX initiative
• - “Intensive training on mycotoxin analysis”. Short
Training Initiative (STI) for participants from developing
countries, 2012 (27.08.2012-07.09.2012), VLIR-UOS.
• - “Intensive training on mycotoxin analysis”. Short
Training Initiative (STI) for participants from developing
countries, 2013 (28.08.2013-11.09.2013), VLIR-UOS.
• - “Intensive training on mycotoxin analysis”. Short
Training Initiative (STI) for participants from developing
countries, 2014 (28.08.2014-10.09.2014), VLIR-UOS.
Individual training of people from developing countries
• continuously; depending on the available scholarships

24. General problems associated with mycotoxin analysis in Africa are:
1) analytical tests are expensive; there is a lack of expertise, or a
limited number of laboratories performing the tests;
2) there is a lack of technical support from companies selling
analytical instruments;
3) turn-around times for results are generally poor: a farmer with
production ready-for-the-market cannot afford to wait for 1 month for
analytical test results;
4) small-scale farmers or informal markets are not aware of the
potential harm caused by mycotoxins;
5) there is an increasing stringent list of regulated mycotoxins, and
laboratories are not always up-to-date with corresponding analytical tests;
6) adopting EU regulations requires sensitive and accurate methods
such as mass spectrometric methods.