Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate on the microbiological qualities of some NAFDAC approved fruit juices sold in Ilorin metropolis. The brand of fruit juices assessed was coded as LL, LC and LB. The total viable counts, associated microorganisms and physicochemical properties of 10 randomly selected samples from each of the brand were determined. The highest mean bacterial load of 7.8 cfu/ml was found in fruit juice coded LL, while the lowest mean bacterial load of 3.5 cfu/ml was recorded for LB. The highest mean fungal load of 6.1 sfu/ml was observed with LL and the lowest mean load of 2.2 sfu/ml was found in LB. LL had no coliform growth, while LC and LB had the same mean load of 0.7 cfu/ml. The bacterial isolates identified from the samples were Bacillus sp., Micrococcus sp, Proteus sp, Escherichia coli andLactobacillus sp, while the fungal isolates were Aspergillus nidulans, Aspergillus niger,Cladosporum sp. and Schzosaccharomyces pombe. The pH values for LL, LC and LB ranged from 3.78 to 3.83, 2.40 to 2.43 and 2.39 to 2.41, respectively. LC had the highest mean total titratable acidity which ranged from 0.14 to 0.66, followed by LB ranging from 0.10 to 0.16, while LL had the lowest values ranged from 0.07 to 0.13. Bacillus sp. is the most frequently encountered in all the samples with a percentage occurrence of 46.67%, while Lactobacillus sp., Micrococcus sp. and Escherichia coli had the lowest percentage occurrence of 36.67% each. In case of fungi, Cladosporum sp had the high percentage occurrence of 43.33%, while A. nidulans had the least percentage occurrence of 23.33% of all the samples examined.

Key words: Fruit juice, microbial quality, microbial load, microbial contamination.