Abstract

Most of the agricultural Commodities and their products/by products are susceptible to fungal spoilage in different pre-and post harvest conditions. A detail survey of whole sale depots was made to assess the natural contamination of the dietary items for incidence of toxic fungi, in particular, Aspergillus group, well documented for elaborating Ochratoxins. The study was made during Jan. 2012- Dec. 2012. Ochratoxin A. is one of the most abundant food contaminating mycotoxins produced mainly by Aspergillus ochraceous (Petzinger et.al.; 2006) and also by Pernicillum verrucosum. Ochratoxin A has been shown to be nephrotoxic, immunosuppressive, mainly carcinogenic and teratogenic in all experimental animals tested so far according to WHO (1990). In this pretext attempts were made to collect and assess the staple human dietary items for natural incidence of toxic fungi open for sale in whole sale depots. The study provides indirect evidences for many of the human ailments the etiology of which is still obscure and prolonged exposure leads to cancer .