Microbial Assessment of Selected, Locally- Fermented and Ready-to-eat Cassava Products Sold in Lokoja, Nigeria

This study was conducted to assess the microbiological safety of locally-fermented, ready-to-eat cassava products, namely garri and ‘fufu’, in Lokoja. A total of sixty samples comprising; twenty white garri, twenty yellow garri and twenty fufu were subjected to microbial analysis. The samples were serially diluted to 10-4 and appropriate dilutions inoculated by spread plate method into Nutrient agar, MacConkey agar and Potato Dextrose agar plates which were used for total aerobic plate count (TAPC), coliform count (CC) and fungal count respectively. The TAPC for white garri ranged from 0.78 to 3.83 log cfu/g, the coliform count ranged from no growth (NG) to 3.80 log cfu/g, while the mean fungal count ranged from 1.96 to 3.39 log cfu/g. The TAPC for yellow garri ranged from 2.04 to 3.95 log cfu/g, the coliform count ranged from NG to 3.62 log cfu/g and the fungal count ranged from 2.08 to 3.44 log cfu/g. The TAPC of fufu was within the range of 1.07 to 3.70 log cfu/g, the coliform count ranged from NG to 3.48 log cfu/g and the fungal count ranged from 1.94 to 2.78 log cfu/g. The bacteria isolated include Bacillus spp., Enterobacter spp., Pseudomonas spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. The fungi isolated from the study samples include Aspergillus niger, Cladosporium spp., Fusarium spp., Rhizopus spp., Alternaria spp., Montospora spp., and Penicillium spp. The pH of the samples ranged from 4.02 to 4.96 in white garri, 4.02 to 4.99 in yellow garri, and 5.02 to 6.44 in fufu. Findings showed that these widely consumed fermented (ready-to-eat) cassava products presents (may represent) a serious risk and route for transmission of food borne pathogens to consumers and generally huge economic disadvantage to food handlers. Improving manufacturing, packaging and storage practices in garri production and for public health purposes are strongly encouraged.