ABSTRACT

 This study investigated the microbial quality and probiotics properties of fufu at processing and finished stages in selected village in Ikwano LGA. Three (3) fufu paste samples were used for this study and it was purchased from Amaba, Ndoru and ahieke market and taken to laboratory for analysis. The samples were cultured on agar, MRS broth, Nutrient agar, MacConkey agar, Potatoes Dextrose agar and Muller Hinton Agar. The bacterial species isolated from the fermented cassava (fufu) processing samples were identified by morphological characteristics, pigmentation on media, microscopy, biochemical and sugar fermentation methods. This reveals the major bacterial isolates to belong to Bacillus species, Escherichia co/i, Staphylococcus aurues, Lactobacillus brevis, Lacto bacillus plantarum and Klebsilla species, while the fungi species are Aspergillus niger, Rhodotorula species and Mucor alternaria. The distribution and percentage occurrence of isolates from the fermented cassava (fufu) showed that Escherichia co/i is the most frequently occurring isolates with a high percentage occurrence of 10(19.2%). The pH, Temperature and Titratable acid of the fermented cassava sample revealed in this study, showed that there was a reduction in the pH of the fermenting cassava from 5.8 to 3.5. Also Temperature slightly changed from 48hours to 72hour which range from 26.0°C to 27.4°C, while the Titratable acid value range from 0.24 to 0.41mg/i respectively. The evaluation of the probiotic characteristics of bacterial and fungal isolate to acid and bile salt tolerance revealed that the viability of isolates decreased significantly after incubation at pH 2.5%, while the survival rates of the bacterial and fungal isolates decreased with increasing bile salt concentration. The antimicrobial activity showed that the strain Lactobacillus brevis and Lacto bacillus planiarum had good antibacterial activity against the indicator pathogenic strains tested. Based on the findings in this study, it is concluded that an association of lactic acid bacteria composed of homofermentative and heterofermentative Lacto bacillus species are involved from the beginning to the end of cassava fermentations for the production of fufu. These features make the isolates suitable candidates for probiotic use.