**6. Conclusions**

ty [19, 108]. Postharvest contamination of grain can also take place during transportation, so grains need to be well covered and/or aerated during transportation [19]. Storage prior and during marketing has to be done in appropriate bagging, preferably sisal bags, because this kind of material facilitates aeration in transit. The use of containers made from plant materi‐ als (wood, bamboo, thatch) or mud placed on raised platforms and covered with thatch or metal roofing sheet is another way to prevention. The stores should be constructed to pre‐ vent insect and rodent infestation and to prevent moisture from getting into the grains. While new storage technologies such as the use of metal or cement bins by small-scale farm‐ ers would serve better, their uptake has been slow due to their high cost. Many farmers nowadays store their grains in bags, especially polypropylene which are not airtight, but there is evidence that this method facilitates fungal contamination and AF development [19, 109, 110]. Presently there are efforts to market improved hermetic storage bags in Africa, based on triple bagging developed for cowpea which has been or is being tested for other

Not only optimal storage plastic bagging and container materials have been proposed. Shak‐ erardekani and Karim reported in 2012 a short communication in which they studied the ef‐ fect of five different types of flexible packaging films (low density polyethylene (LDPE) which served as the control, food-grade polyvinyl chloride (PVC), nylon (LDPE/PA), polya‐ mide/polypropylene (PA/PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET)) on the moisture and AF contents of pistachio nuts during storage at room temperature (22–28 °C) and relative hu‐ midity of 85–100%. Samples were analyzed at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 months during the storage period. Results showed that there was an increase in moisture content with the increase in storage time of pistachio nuts. The increase in moisture content was associated with the AF level of pistachio nuts during storage time. All the packaging materials except LDPE de‐ layed the moisture absorption and AF formation of the product. The most suitable packag‐ ing materials for maintaining the quality and safety of pistachio nuts were PET films followed by nylon, PA/ PP and PVC. The shelf-life of pistachio showed to be extended from

2 months (Control) to 5 months when PET was used as the packaging material [108].

In the market, there are some products that have been proved recently on grain shelf-life ex‐ tension. This is the case of Mater-Bi® (MB), a bioplastic product composed of starch, poly‐ caprolactone (e-caprolactone) and a minor amount of a natural plasticizer, being a reliable and readily adaptable product currently used for making shopping bags, biofillers, agricul‐ tural films and a number of other commercial products [111]. Moreover, MB is completely biodegradable, having a rate of breakdown similar to that of cellulose, having a highly fa‐ vorable low environmental impact profile [112]. Based in MB properties and reviewing pre‐ vious research that demonstrated that AF contamination in corn is reduced by field application of wheat grains pre-inoculated with the non-aflatoxigenic *Aspergillus flavus* strain NRRL 30797, Accinelli and collaborators in 2009 conducted a series of laboratory stud‐ ies on the reliability and efficiency of replacing wheat grains with the novel bioplastic for‐ mulation Mater-Bi® to serve as a carrier matrix to formulate this fungus. Mater-Bi® granules were inoculated with a conidial suspension of NRRL 30797 to achieve a final cell density of approximately log 7 conidia / granule. Incubation of 20-g soil samples receiving a

commodities [19].

116 Aflatoxins - Recent Advances and Future Prospects

The use of biotechnological methods is a promising tool based on the use of biological sys‐ tems, living organisms or their derivatives, and focused not only on increasing agricultural products quality, but also on the development of new approaches for fighting against AF and avoiding diseases caused by this threat. The use of new materials like biopolymers and biodegradable plastics on crops seems to be more effective against toxins, and moreover, they have the capability to replace substances that are harmful for health, avoiding contami‐ nation and offering the consumer better and uncontaminated products.

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