Kenyan crop contamination outbreak inspires grad student to improve rice storage

While half the global population relies on rice as a staple, about 15% of rice produced each year is contaminated by potentially fatal aflatoxins. Seeing this threaten lives in her home country of Kenya prompted a graduate research assistant to focus on eradicating the risk through safer storage methods.Faith Ouma, a Ph.D. student in the food science department at the University of Arkansas, was the lead author of "Investigating safe storage conditions to mitigate aflatoxin contamination in rice." It was published in the journal Food Control.Ouma completed her undergraduate studies in biochemistry in Kenya before earning a master's and pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Arkansas. Her study was conducted through the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. The food science department is part of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.When exposed to poor storage ...