Just adding a pinch of baking soda to a common African corn dish could basically wipe out the risk of getting liver cancer from it.
April 13, 2026
Original Paper
Aflatoxin-B1 Degradation and Nutrient Retention During Thermal-alkaline Preparation of Nshima from Maize Flour Porridge
SSRN · 6562064
The Takeaway
Maize is often contaminated with a deadly, cancer-causing mold toxin, but researchers found that adding 1% baking soda to the cooking pot destroys nearly 60% of it. It’s a cheap, life-saving fix for millions of people.
From the abstract
Maize is widely consumed as porridge globally and commonly as a thickened version of the porridge in sub-Saharan Africa, called Nshima in Zambia. As maize is prone to aflatoxin contamination, we investigated the effect of heat and its combination with alkaline (thermal-alkaline treatment) on aflatoxin-B1 degradation and on the nutritive value of the Nshima as product of cooked maize flour. Aflatoxin-B1-contaminated maize flour (95 μg/kg) was processed into Nshima the traditional way (boiling wit