MICROBIAL AND PHYSIOCHEMICAL PROFILE OF BRANDED AND UNBRANDED GROUNDNUT OIL

Processed food products have shown high potentials to be contaminated in suitableenvironmental conditions. Groundnut oil is one of such products. The study wasconducted to determine the safest branded and unbranded groundnut oil sold inmarkets. Total bacterial count and Total fungal count were evaluated using standardmicrobiological methods. The result obtained showed that all the branded oil was freefrom bacterial contamination since they went through a series of refining processes.Although, they were contaminated with fungi. All the unbranded groundnut oil hadbacterial and fungal contaminations of species which include; Bacillus (20%),Staphylococcus (20%), Enterobacter (6%), Micrococcus (27%), Fusarium, andAspergillus sp. The total heterotrophic bacteria count for the unbranded groundnut oilsamples ranged from 9.4×102 to 2.3×102cfu/ml while total fungal counts forunbranded groundnut oil samples ranged from 5.5 ×100and 2.0×100cfu/ml. The totalbacterial count for branded groundnut oil ranged from 3.0×100 and 2.0×100 which werewithin acceptable standards. The physicochemical parameters for unbrandedgroundnut oil did not exceed the acceptable limit. Nevertheless, consumers areencouraged to use more refined and branded groundnut oil as these fall closer toacceptable standards than regular unbranded ones.