Abstract

This work was aimed at determining the effect of different singeing method on the nutrient, microbial and heavy metal concentration in processed cowhide (ponmo).The samples (ponmo) were grouped into four prior to processing using different methods which include firewood, local oven, tyre and shaving. After singeing some were subjected to boiling (heat treatment) before further analyses, while the remaining were analyzed without boiling, the nutritional composition yielded high levels of moisture and carbohydrate contents in boiled and unboiled ponmo samples as 65. 75% and 30.16% respectively for boiled samples, and 51.42% and 43. 76% respectively for unboiled samples. Various metal concentrations of Cr, Zn, Fe, Pb and Mn were detected in all treatments and their maximum values were 1.321 ± 0.23lmg/kg, 2.081 ± 0.0387mg/kg, 0.671 ± 0.07lmg/kg, 5.280 ± 4.08lmg/kg and 5.952 ± l 1.935mg/kg respectively. These values were within the maximum permissible ranges of various food safety standards. Both treatments showed reduced microbial load as observed from unboiled ponmo samples to boiled ponmo samples. The total bacterial and fungal counts were 1.11 x 10cfu/g and 8.5 x 10cfu/g to 8.3 x 10cfu/g and 3.0 x 10cfu/g. However, these different singeing methods affected most of the heavy metal concentrations in this study, but those ponmo samples processed with the use of tyre were found to be preferable especially in Cr and Fe concentrations. Results from the heavy metal concentration shows that the boiled samples showed reduced concentration in the heavy metal determined compared to the unboiled ones. The concentration of Pb in the boiled samples reduced significantly with the shaving stick method (1.175 mg/kg). Singeing with firewood had the highest Pb concentration of 5.280 mg/kg.