The mycological content of ready to eat garri in Amassoma, Bayelsa State

Garri is consumed by several millions of people in the West African sub-region and in Nigeria in particular, regardless of ethnicity and socio-economic class. However, production and handling methods have not been standardized resulting in garri product with varying mycological contamination. The objective of this study was to assess the mycological safety and mycological contamination of garri marketed in Amassoma, Bayelsa State. A total of forty-four samples comprising of both freshly prepared garri and displayed garri in the open market were used for this study. The samples were collected with sterile polythene bags adopting standard procedures and transported to the laboratory for analysis within 12 h. The result of this study clearly showed fungal contamination resulting from its display in the open market, Aspergillus sp. and Penicillium sp. had the highest frequency of occurrence (33.3%) in white garri while in yellow garri, Aspergillus sp. (33.3%) was the fungi most frequently isolated. Other fungi species isolated in the garri samples were Fusarium sp, Mucor sp, Alternaria sp, Cladosporium sp and Rhizopus sp. The relationship between fungi spp. and type of garri (white or yellow) was not statistically significant as the calculated value was greater than the p value of 0.05. Since this product harbor arrays of fungi, strategy to antagonize their growth and survival in this commodity in order to neutralize the potential of these organisms serving as agents of food borne diseases should be adopted.   Key words: Disease, fungi, garri, microbiology, production, occurrence.