Abstract:
Background: Cameroon’s rapidly changing food systems face persistent food-safety challenges associated with chemical contaminants, particularly mycotoxins and heavy metals. Agricultural practices, environmental contamination, inadequate post-harvest handling, traditional processing and storage conditions can facilitate contamination of staple and processed foods. Importantly, the co-occurrence of multiple contaminants creates complex exposure scenarios that may not be adequately characterized through conventional single-contaminant surveillance. Research conducted in Cameroon has demonstrated contamination of cereals, nuts, traditionally processed foods, beverages and other commonly consumed products with mycotoxins and potentially toxic elements, raising concerns about chronic dietary exposure and associated health effects.
Objective: To synthesize evidence on the occurrence of mycotoxins and heavy metals in Cameroonian food systems and integrate food-contamination data with human biomonitoring, dietary exposure estimation and health-risk assessment, highlighting opportunities for science, innovation and technology to strengthen food safety and protect public health.
Methodology: Evidence was synthesized from published investigations conducted in Cameroon involving food-contaminant occurrence, dietary exposure, human biomonitoring and health-risk assessment. Analytical approaches included chromatographic and immunoassay-based determination of mycotoxins and measurement of heavy metals in food, water and beverages. Dietary exposure was assessed using consumption data and contaminant concentrations, while human exposure was evaluated using urinary biomarkers of mycotoxin exposure. Risk characterization incorporated estimated dietary intake and relevant health-based reference values.
Results and Discussion: Studies demonstrated widespread occurrence and co-occurrence of multiple mycotoxins, including aflatoxins, fumonisins, deoxynivalenol and zearalenone, in Cameroonian food commodities. Human biomonitoring further demonstrated that dietary contamination translates into measurable internal exposure, with multiple mycotoxin biomarkers detected simultaneously in urine. Investigations of foods, water and beverages in Yaoundé also identified lead, cadmium, mercury and other elements, with estimated dietary intakes of some contaminants indicating potential health concerns. Collectively, these findings demonstrate the need to move from isolated contamination measurements towards an integrated food-to-human exposure continuum linking food surveillance, biomonitoring, toxicological assessment and population health. Advances in LC-MS/MS, immunoassays, biomarker-based surveillance, exposure modelling and data-driven risk assessment offer important opportunities for targeted monitoring and prevention.
Conclusion: Transforming Cameroon’s food systems requires a shift from reactive detection of contaminated foods towards proactive, risk-based food-safety systems integrating contaminant surveillance, human biomonitoring, exposure assessment, technological innovation and community-level prevention. Such an integrated approach can improve identification of high-risk foods and populations, strengthen evidence-based food-safety policies and ultimately reduce dietary exposure to mycotoxins and heavy metals. It also provides a scalable framework for developing safer, healthier and more resilient food systems in Cameroon and other African settings.
Keywords: Mycotoxins; Heavy metals; Food contaminants; Human biomonitoring; Dietary exposure; Health risk assessment; Food safety; Public health