Manifesto alimentar: o dilema higiene-segurança face às aflatoxinas com enfoque em Moçambique
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This essay examines the ethical dilemma involved in managing food contaminated by aflatoxins, considering food insecurity in Mozambique, with particular attention to the tension between the need to preserve immediate food availability and the duty to protect public health. The aim was to discuss, in light of normative ethics, which decision is most justifiable in crisis situations: destroying contaminated food, transforming it, diverting it to non-food uses, or allowing its consumption under risk. This is a theoretical essay supported by documentary analysis of academic and institutional sources on aflatoxins, food safety, public health, and regulation, with Mozambique as the main focus and Kenya as a contrasting case. The reading of the material was guided by deontological, virtue ethics, and consequentialist perspectives. The documents analyzed suggest that no response is free from moral costs in scenarios of extreme scarcity. Destroying food may reduce health risk but tends to worsen hunger. Conversely, consumption under risk may ensure immediate survival, although it exposes especially the most vulnerable groups to severe and lasting harm. Controlled transformation and diversion to non-food uses appear as intermediate solutions, even though they depend on technical capacity, effective regulation, and some degree of institutional transparency. Thus, the issue requires clear, flexible, and participatory regulation, accompanied by post-harvest prevention, risk communication, and monitoring, in order to reduce exposure without ignoring the human right to adequate food.
Source: Cadernos de Saúde Pública
Author: Edgar Cambaza
Institution: Universidade Aberta ISCED
Language: Portuguese
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7222917347