Abstract

The microbiological safety of three locally fermented foods (gari, lafun and ogiri) was investigated in this work. Ten different samples each of the fermented foods were collected at the central market (Oja Oba). The mean total bacterial count in the samples of gari, lafun and ogiri were 14.3 x 10⁴, 13.2 x 10⁵ and10.2 x10⁶ cfu/g, respectively. Also the mean total viable count of mould was 1.6 x 10⁴, 3.7 x 10⁵ and 8.2 x 10⁶ cfs/g, respectively. Bacteria isolated from gari include Corynebacterium species,Lactobacillus species, Bacteriodes species, Pseudomonas species and Actinomycesspecies while the isolated moulds from gari include Scolecotrichum graminis, Tallospora aspera, Passalora bacilligera, Varicosporium sp., Culicidospora gravida and Diplococcium spicatum. Bacteria isolated from lafun include;Streptococcus sp., Lactobacillus species and Listeria species while the isolated the isolated moulds were Articulospora inflate, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus rapens,Aspergillus flavus and Lemonniera aquatica. Also, the bacteria isolated from ogiri were Bacillus sp., Pediococcus sp., Streptococcus sp. and Lactobacillus sp. while the mould isolated from ogiri were Rhizopus stolonifer, Aspergillus fumigatus andTriscelophorus monosporus. Even though some potential pathogenic bacteria likeListeria and Bacillus were isolated from the fermented foods, the low count recorded for them is not enough to establish any health risk.

Key words: Fermented foods, bacteria, fungi, safety.