ABSTRACT

 Ogiri condiments constitutes significant portion of the diet of many people, but are associated with problems such as having a short shelf life, characteristic putrid odour, stickiness and poor unattractive paste-clump form. Alkaline ogiri-egusi was developed using cornstarch extracts as binders in this study to obtain a powder form product. Proximate and microbial analysis were determined on the fermented ogiri-egusi blends immediately after production and after four ( 4) weeks of storage. There was significant difference (p<0.05) in the proximate composition (except fat content) upon production, with sample C (60 ogiri: 10 cornstarch) having the highest mean values for moisture content (7.05%), crude protein(12.54%), ash(5.14%), while sample D (Control) scored highest carbohydrate (65.59%). The moisture and protein content of the samples increased after storage with sample C (60: 10) still having the highest values of 14.23% and 22.21 % respectively. There was reduction in the ash, fat, fibre and carbohydrate contents, highest values obtained for the reduced parameters were 2.04%, 7 .21%, 1.39% and 60.87% respectively. The fungal count was as high as 4.2x 105Cfu with Rhizopus stolofener, Asper gillus niger and Saccharomyces cerevisae being implicated, all of which died off upon storage of the samples. Identified bacteria were Pseudomonas aureginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli within the range of I .Ox I 05 to I .4x I 05 Cf u/g. However, the microbial count increased after storage to a range of l.32x I 05 to 2. 70 x I 05Cfu/g with sample D ( 100% ogiri) having the highest count. This study suggests that ogiri-egusi can be blended with cornstarch in the ratio of 60: IO to produce a nutritional ogiri-egusi powder of good microbial standard.