Bacteriological Quality of Commercially Prepared Fermented Ogi (Akamu) Sold in Some Parts of South Eastern Nigeria

Food poisoning and infection by bacteria are of public health significance to both developing and developed countries. Samples of ogi (akamu) prepared from white and yellow variety of maize sold in Uturu and Okigwe were analyzed together with the laboratory prepared ogi for bacterial quality using the standard microbiological methods. The analyses showed that both white and yellow variety had total bacterial counts (cfu/g) of 4.0×10⁷ and 3.9x10⁷ for the laboratory prepared ogi while the commercial ogi had 5.2x10⁷ and 4.9x10⁷, 4.9x10⁷ and 4.5x10⁷, 5.4x10⁷ and 5.0x10⁷ for Eke-Okigwe, Up-gate and Nkwo-Achara market respectively. The Staphylococcal counts ranged from 2.0 x 10² to 5.0x10² and 1.0x10² to 4.0 x10² for the white and yellow variety from the different markets while Staphylococcal growth was not recorded on the laboratory prepared ogi. The laboratory prepared ogi had no Coliform growth while the commercially prepared ogi had counts of 0.5x10³ to 1.6x10³ for white variety and 0.3x10³ to 1.1x10³ for yellow variety respectively. The Lactic acid bacterial count of 3.5x10⁶ and 3.0x10⁶ was recorded for the laboratory ogi while the commercially prepared ogi ranged from 3.2x10⁶ to 4.2x10⁶ (white variety) and 3.0x10⁶ to 3.9x10⁶ (yellow). The presence of bacteria isolates from the samples showed that Lactobacillus sp, Leuconostoc sp and Citrobacter sp were present in all the samples, Micrococcus sp and Klebsiella sp were isolated from Eke-Okigwe and ABSU-up-gate markets varieties respectively, E. coli and Staphylococcus sp were present in Eke-Okigwe and Nkwo-Achara markets while Salmonella sp were isolated from the three markets.