ABSTRACT

The microorganisms responsible for the fermentation of tiger nut milk sold in Umuahia, Abia State were investigated. The isolation, identifications, characterization and microbial counts were done using standard microbiological techniques. The wet and dry tiger nut sample at zero fermentation period has microbial load range from 3.0 + 0.3d to 6.05 + 0.8d and 3.75 + 0.5e to 6.95 + 0.8c while at 72 hours of fermentation has 3.45 + 0.4d to 9.0 + 0.9b and 2.8 + 0.4d to 7.0 + 0.4b and at 120 hours of fermentation has 3.25 + 0.3c to 8.35 + 0.9d and 3.9 + 0.6c to 6.75 + 0.6e respectively. It reveals that microbial load increased from zero hour to 120 hours of fermented periods. The mean viable microbial counts in the samples analyzed were above the recommended standard. The predominant bacterial and fungal species includes; Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Klebseilla Species, Staphylococci aureus, Lactobacillus species, Lactobacillu Plantarum, Aspergillus flavus, Mucor species and Saccharomyces cerevisiae with varying degrees of occurrences. Escherichia coli has the highest number of isolates (24%) followed by Lactobacillus species (18.2%) while Aspergillus flavus has the least isolate with (4%). The results obtained in this study shows that there are presence of pathogenic bacteria that may be potential source of food borne infection and some related diseases for the consumers of this product in the studied areas. Therefore, further studies are recommended to preserve the health of the consumers