ABSTRACT

This study was to evaluate the prevalence of Gram-negative bacteria from impressed fermented maize. From this study a total of four (4) Gram negative bacteria strains were obtained and identified using morphological characteristics, pigmentation on media, microscopy, biochemical and sugar fermentation methods. This reveals the major bacterial isolates to belong to Escherichia coli, Klebsiella sp, Salmonella sp and Shigella species respectively. The total coliform plate count (TCPC) from the fermented maize (pap) samples ranged from 3.0 105cfti/ml to 5.6xl0cfuJml with sample 7 giving the highest count of 5.6x105cfu1m1 whereas sample 2 had the lowest mean count of 3.0 x lO5cfulml. it was observed that Escherichia coli is the most frequently occurring bacteria isolate from the fermented maize samples with a percentage occurrence of (41.2%), followed by Salmonella sp with a percentage occurrence of (29.4%), then, Shigella sp with a percentage occurrence of (17.6%), whereas Kiebsiella sp has the least percentage occurrence of (11.8%). These bacteria isolated and identified in this pap samples are of public health importance thus their presence in such product continues to be considered as major causes of gastro-intestinal disorders, food poisoning and food borne diseases. Therefore it is recommended that good and personal hygienic practices should be maintained at every stages of production in other to avoid contamination.