ABSTRACT

The emergence of food poisoning pandemics around the world has raised public awareness of food safety and demanded better control of processing conditions to ensure safe and high quality products. This study was conducted to evaluate the level of microbial load in refrigerated and non-refrigerated stored pap. A total of twelve (12) samples of freshly fennented pap were randomly purchased from different vendors within Umuahia, Abia state. Six out the twelve samples were then stored by refrigeration while the other were stored by steeping at room temperature. Bacterial loads, isolation and identification were enumerated using standard microbiological techniques on microbiological media. A total 7 microorganisms were isolated which include six (6) bacteria species and one (I) fungal species. The bacteria strains include Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas sp., Klebsiella pneumonia, Lactobacillus sp. and Staphylococcus aureus while the fungi isolate was Saccharomyces Cerevisiae. Lactobacillus sp. was the most predominate microbial isolate (21.4%), followed by Bacillus subtilis (17.9%), Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Saccharomyces Cerevisiae (14.3%) each. while the least was Pseudomonas aeruginosa (7.1%). After 24hrs of incubation a total viable count ranging from 3.9 x10' to 5.6 x10' CFU/ml and 2.9x10'- 8.9«10° cfu/ml was recorded in refrigerated and non-refrigerated stored pap respectively. The microbial loads after 24hrs incubation showed that all of the stored Pap sampled exceeded the standard limit for food and water. The findings of this study indicates that none of stored samples were within acceptable standards due to high colony counts, presence of indicator organisms /index of food quality - Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus auerus. This study suggests thus, Akamu should be preserved appropriately to avoid/reduce further microbial growth.