Data for Meta-analysis of Adverse Health Effects of Zearalenone (ZEN) in Cereal Growing Communities in Africa

Human exposures to mycotoxins resulting in carcinogenic, neurotoxic and endocrine disreputability health outcomes warrant their monitoring in food systems. This meta-analysis was based on zearalenone (ZEN), an abundant mycoestrogen in grains and cereal-based foods across African communities. Keywords; “adverse health", "cereals", "zearalenone", and "Africa" were used to screen published articles from Google Scholar, CrossRef, PubMed and Scopus databases and filtered to obtain 36 relevant articles covering 53 studies. ZEN concentrations were statistically converted to weighted averages and effect sizes, and prevalence determined. Probabilistic dietary exposures were run using ZEN concentrations, masses of cereal consumptions (from WHO/GEMs database) and consumers' body weight (from EFSA). Exposures were simulated at 105 iterations, benchmarked against PMTDI (0.25 μg/kg) and quantified as hazard quotient (HQ) to describe risk of adverse reproductive health outcomes. The results presented ZEN concentrations ranging from 0.90 to 1032 μg/kg and high prevalence in rice and rice-based products (75%). Simulated modal and 95th percentile ZEN exposures ranged respectively from 1.20×10-4 to 1.49×10-3, and 0.030 to 0.494 μg/kg(bw)-day. Infants recorded the highest modal (1.780 μg/kg(bw)-day) and top 5% exposures (0.494 μg/kg(bw)-day) which exceeded the regulatory threshold and consequently presented risk (HQ>1). The other age groups at the 95th percentile, exposures ranked as: adult females (0.037 μg/kg(bw)-day)>adult males (0.030 μg/kg(bw)-day) >elderly group (0.33 μg/kg(bw)-day). Infants were more vulnerable to risks arising from ZEN contaminations and concerted mitigation strategies for the mycotoxin must be encouraged to control risk among this age group.