‘Dangerous loaves’ (2) Poisonous moulds in Agege bread

The Nation’s investigative lab analysis reveals toxic spores in selected bread samples. Olatunji OLOLADE, Associate Editor

A bad mould makes a good loaf toxic to the belly. It spreads its spores around the loaf, contaminating it inside out. It renders it inedible; the spores tangle in wild communion, their rotted networks snarling like violent picture-puzzles in a story that only decay could reveal.

It doesn’t matter if it’s freshly baked and seductive with scent, amid the loaf’s risen crusts, fungal cells bloom and split apart, spitting pips all over the white crust of the freshly done bread.

Eventually, the loaf loses its lustre; like laughter jaded by a debris of frowns, it decays in the onset of aggressive spores.

On consumption, the effect of the contaminated loaf may manifest, first, as a simple headache. Then a dangerous migraine. Microbiological and health experts, however, predict more severe ailments, like reduced immune, asthma, to mention a few.

“Moulds on a bread loaf are dangerous to health,” warned Bolaji Ojise, a medical doctor.

His warning is probably not far-fetched. Following The Nation’s investigations at an artisanal bakery (producer of Butter Roll loaf) among others, in Agege, Lagos, laboratory test and analysis of bread from the bakery, and several others, revealed serious health concerns.

In the study sponsored by The Nation and conducted at the Scientific Laboratory Services, an Institute of Public Analysts (ITPAN) approved research facility, over 80 percent of the 60 loaves subjected to physicochemical and microbiological test developed moulds shortening their shelf life.

However, 12 sample loaves were found to contain mould at degrees “Too Numerous To Count,” which is beyond the Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS) acceptable limit of100 cfu/mg.

Public analyst and resident chemist of the lab, Akinwunmi Onafalujo, declared the affected bread samples “unfit for human consumption.”

Corroborating him, Uchenna Bosah, Quality Assurance Manager of the lab, argued, that the affected bread samples sprouted with mould beyond acceptable limit, within a shelf life of five days.

“By the second day, some of the samples were replete with mould. By the fifth day, some samples contained mould too numerous to count, making them unsafe for human consumption,” she noted.

Bakers react

The contaminated loaves were produced in artisanal bakeries in Agege, Ilasa, and Mushin areas of Lagos.

Producers of the affected bread samples, however, argued, that there is nothing wrong with their products.

“What test? There is nothing wrong with my bread. I have been producing it and people have been eating it for so long. Don’t come and cause any problem for me and my customers,” said Abiodun Shonde, producer of Butter Roll Bread.

Thomas Ajeigbe, 27, also manages a decrepit traditional oven in Ogun State outskirts, from there, his loaves are shipped to Lagos, where consumers are “addicted” to his product, hence he “seriously faults” the results of the lab work.

“Did I give you permission to test my bread? There is nothing wrong with it. Even if moulds grow on the bread, just take a foam or a napkin and dust it off. If it’s deep, cut the affected part off with a knife or scrape it with blade. It’s a normal thing. And even the average bread consumer knows this fact,” he said.

‘It’s a perfectly good bread’

Consumers are no doubt divided over the safety of consuming mouldy bread. Frank Otis, an insurance broker, revealed that he was raised on a diet of stale and mouldy bread.

“Times were hard and bread was the only food staple to my family…As an orphan, I was raised by my grandma in Arondizuogwu in Imo State. Things were tough. We grew the food we ate and bread was the only other food we consumed. Sometimes, the bread was already stale by the time we purchased it from the vendor, particularly on Sundays. We ate it like that and kept a part of it for the following day. I remember helping mama (his grandma) to scrape green and black mould off the bread. We ate it and nothing happened to us,” he said.

But growing up, Mabel Essiet’s mother chided her every time she refused to eat mouldy bread. “I can still hear her reprimand me for throwing it in the bin: ‘That’s a perfectly good bread! Just cut out the bad parts! Sometimes, I was forced to eat it. Most times, I opted to drink yellow garri, especially when we had nothing else to eat,” said the Lagos-based teacher and mother of two.

“My mother still tells me to cut out the bad parts and feed my children such bread. But I just can’t,” revealed Essiet.

So, who’s right? Is the furry green and black mould a death knell for a baked loaf, or just a minor irritation that should be scraped off?

Mouldy bread is bad news, says microbiologists

For food safety experts, the answer is clear: Mouldy bread is bad news. Bisi Ayinde, a microbiologist and public health analyst, argued that “there is absolutely nothing healthy about consuming mouldy bread.”

According to her, consumers of such bread will eventually develop serious health issues because they are ingesting fungi; that often have no benefit to human health.

Likewise, Dr. Samuel Onuorah of the Department of Applied Microbiology and Brewing, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, in a chat with The Nation, argued that, “The presence of mould in significant number in bread is a public health risk.”

Reacting to The Nation’s investigative lab analysis of selected bread loaves, Dr. Onuorah stated that when the mould count “exceeds 100 cfu/g, which is the allowable limit, such bread should be discarded and not consumed.”

He asserted that, “moulds produce potent mycotoxins while growing on bread. These toxins are known to cause various diseases to humans. Bread contaminated by mould must not be eaten at all despite the storage period to avert public health problems,” he warned.

According to Dr. Onuorah, the high fungal counts may be due to poor post-baking handling as fungal spores are generally killed by bread making processes. “Contamination of bread may come from the air, bakery surfaces, equipment and handlers during the cooling, slicing or wrapping operations. Furthermore, moisture condensation on a bread surface due to packaging prior to its being completely cooled may be conducive to mould growth.

“Mould growth is the major microbiological factor affecting the shelf life of bread. The presence of these spoilage fungi in significant numbers in commercial bread is a public health hazard as some of them have been known to produce mycotoxins which are injurious to health,” he said.

A previous study conducted by Dr. Onuorah on bread samples in Awka, revealed that mould colonies may be difficult to detect, as it could appear white in colour at first and later turn black and yellow on the reverse.

Why mouldy bread is bad for health

Bread mould destroys the bread, making it inedible. It is a kind of fungus that grows on the surface of the bread and draws nutrients from the loaf for its survival.

Mould spores are the “seeds” cast off by mature fungi. They are everywhere, but they need the right environment to settle and grow. Bread, particularly white bread, is an attractive place to land because it is high in starch, a substance that breaks down into sugars, which is a high-energy food for mould. Bread is also generally kept sealed in a bag, limiting air circulation and stays in a cool, damp, dark place like a refrigerator or bread box. These are prime conditions for the development of mould colonies.

Birth of a colony

Since mould is a fungus, it is made of many cells (unlike bacteria which is single-celled). They have an appearance like that of shiny mushrooms which can be seen under the microscope. Though, some moulds can be observed with the naked eye as well. Several moulds have a body consisting of root threads, that penetrates the bread on which they grow; they might even form a stalk which rises above the food or produce spores which are formed at the end of the stalk, according to Dr. Onuorah.

Once the starch in bread begins to set up, however, it becomes a tempting treat for hungry mould spores. Because moulds do not have chlorophyll like other plants, they are particularly aggressive feeders, so thousands of spores can cover a piece of bread overnight and millions in a few days.

Once a spore finds a piece of bread in a dark, cool, moist place, where air hardly circulates, it sinks its tentacles, called “hyphae,” into the spaces that make up the surface of bread. Mould spreads rapidly, forming the mycelium or mould colony. Clusters of hyphae, called “sporangiophores,” grow upward, forming the mature conidia (asexual mature spores) that hold myriad spores and give each mould its distinctive colour.

When their cases break open, tiny spores go airborne until they find a hospitable place to land that is cool, damp, dark and has a good food supply, and then the process begins anew. The hyphae dig deep into the porous surface of the bread, working through it as well as over its surface.

The most optimum condition for bread mould growth is that offered by warm and moist surfaces like bread. When they land on such a surface, they break down the cell walls with the help of digestive enzymes and acids.

Once they are attached to the bread, they begin to grow at a rapid pace, infecting the loaf further and sending more spores into the air. Each spore is divided into two branches. One, which is longer and black (spores), and the other which is shorter, and penetrates the bread to absorb the food. It is not merely the surface that the spores attack. When one can observe mould on the surface of the food, it means that the mould has already gone in deep and has attacked the food from within. This means that the food has become toxic and poisonous, according to health experts.

Types of bread moulds

There are several bread mould species and types. They also come in varied colors and shapes. Some of these are – Aspergillus, Monascus, Rhizopus, Penicillium, Fusarium and Monascus. Each of these species has its own colour. The Rhizopus is black and fuzzy, while the Aspergillus is finer in texture. The Penicillium species is more grayish-green, has a white border to it and is fuzzy in appearance.

Looking beyond bromate problem

Most lab work and analysis focus on investigating bromate content in bread but a real problem equally subsists in the baked food’s contamination by mould, argued Lara Adesola, a lab technologist. According to her, bromate is a banned, carcinogenic (cancer-causing) substance but mould portends serious health risks to consumers of bread.

She said: “When we come in contact with moulds, we ingest substances known as mycotoxins through our skin, mucous, and airways, which are produced by the bread mould. These are very dangerous for our health. Once inside, they can spread and affect the immune system severely. These lead to health conditions like allergies, hypersensitivity, respiratory problems (asthma, wheezing, coughing); and some other severe ones like memory loss, depression, anxiety and reproductive problems.”

Towards better production process

The major problem associated with bread, among other baked food, is the frequent incidence of contamination. Due to the nature and methods of preparation, which involves extensive and often careless handling, they are usually prone to contamination from water, air, storage/distribution facilities, the environment, food handlers and vendors.

The Nation’s investigations in selected Lagos and Ogun bakeries revealed flagrant disregard of food safety rules specified by the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), among other inadequacies.

The food and drugs regulatory agency, in its guidelines for inspection and requirements for bread manufacturing, published by its Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (FSAN) Directorate, requires baking personnel to wear protective apparel such as overall, head cover, nose and mouth masks and hand gloves to protect products from contamination.

The agency also requires bakery personnel to have access to medical treatment and checks for communicable diseases at least twice a year and the records should be kept within the facility.

These rules are, however, flouted across many bakeries, where bakery staff produce and handle bread in often sordid and unsafe conditions. The major problem of short-term shelf life of analysed bread samples is contamination by fungi, according to microbiologists and nutritionists.

Previous studies on microbial contamination of bread have reported poor knowledge practised in food handling. Furthermore, like many other processed foods, bread is subjected to physical, chemical and microbiological spoilage by such organisms as Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Clostridium, Staphylococci, Listeria, Bacillus spp. and moulds of several genera like Rhizopus, Aspergillus and Penicillium.

The implication of consuming such contaminated loaves is the risk associated with ingestion of mycotoxins and other allergens produced by these contaminants.

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of moulds that exert toxic effects on animals and humans. The toxic effect of mycotoxins on animal and human health is referred to as mycotoxicosis, the severity of which depends on the toxicity of the mycotoxin, the extent of exposure, age and nutritional status of the individual and possible synergistic effects of other chemicals to which the individual is exposed, according to health experts.

Recent medical opinion contends that acute infection by mycotoxins can cause serious and sometimes fatal diseases. The possibility of mycotoxin intoxication should be considered when an acute disease occurs in several persons when there is no evidence of infection with a known causal agent, and no improvement in the clinical picture following treatment.

Most of the outbreaks are a consequence of the ingestion of food that is contaminated with mycotoxins, like bread, argued Aisha Dele-Alao, a public health analyst.

There is no gainsaying that microbial spoilage of bread and the consequent waste problem causes large economic losses for bread producers and consumers. Furthermore, the presence of mycotoxins due to fungal contamination remains a significant issue.

The use of conventional chemical preservatives has several drawbacks, necessitating the development of clean-label alternatives.

Research aiming to extend the shelf life of bread through the use of more consumer friendly and ecologically sustainable preservation techniques as alternatives to chemical additives have been suggested by food safety experts.

Sourdough fermented with antifungal strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) is an area of increasing focus and serves as a high-potential biological ingredient to produce gluten-containing and gluten-free breads with improved nutritional value, quality and safety due to shelf-life extension.

This, argued health experts, would be in-line with consumer’s demands for more products containing less additives. Other alternative biopreservation techniques include the utilisation of antifungal peptides, ethanol and plant extracts.

These, according to health experts, can be added to bread formulations or incorporated in antimicrobial films for active packaging of bread.

University don and microbiologist, Dr. Onuorah, recommended that adequate hygiene should be maintained in all the bread making processes to retard the growth of fungi. “Bread spoilt by these organisms must not be consumed and the incorporation of safe food grade chemical preservatives during dough preparation is recommended…Bread is prone to filamentous fungal spoilage. The knowledge of the filamentous fungal spoilage of bread will educate the consumers on the public health implications of the growth of the organisms and their toxins in bread and proffer the possible solutions to such spoilage,” he said.