Biopreservative activity of lactic acid bacteria on suya produced from poultry meat

The influence of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) isolated from poultry meat on the attributes of suya was investigated. Lactobacillus plantarum with the highest frequency of occurrence (90%) produced the highest amount of lactic acid (16.2 g/l) and inhibited all the indicator organisms with the exception of Candida albicans and Proteus vulgaris. Consequently, L. plantarum was chosen as the starter culture to inoculate pieces of poultry meat before (CB) and after (CA) grilling for suya production. Relatively lowmicrobial counts (log cfu/g) of coliform (8.23), Staphylococcus (4.83), LAB (8.1) and yeast/mould (5.63) were observed for CA samples after six days of storage. Grilling at 80oC for 30 min gave the best suya attributes with crude protein content of 33.45%. The best packaging material was polyphenylchloride as compared to aluminum foil and newsprint

Influence of ginger on sensory properties and shelf-life of ogi, a Nigerian traditional fermented food

The influence of ginger on fermentation, acceptability and shelf life of ogi (maize pap) was investigated. Various concentrations (1, 5 or 10%) of milled oven-dried ginger were incorporated into ogi at the beginning of fermentation. Physico-chemical and microbiological changes during fermentation and storage were determined. The pH of ogi samples decreased steadily and ranged between 4.08 and 5.80 and titratable acidity (TA) ranged between 0.20 and 0.77% at the end of fermentation (48 h). The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) count (log cfu/ml) ranged between 6.58 and 6.96 while the yeast count (log cfu/ml) ranged between 5.76 and 7.84. Sensory evaluation of cooked ogi samples revealed that highconcentration of ginger (10%) adversely affected acceptability. Therefore, sample B (containing 5% ginger) was rated best in all the parameters tested. During storage, there was a slight decrease in pH of the samples which ranged between 3.27 and 3.65 while TA ranged between 0.009 and 0.12%. Sample D (containing no ginger) had the highest coliform count of 6.83 log cfu/ml while sample C (containing 10% ginger) had the lowest count of 6.49 log cfu/ml. Sample D also had the highest mould/yeast count of 9.81 log cfu/ml while sample C had the lowest (9.20 log cfu/ml).The total viable count ranged between 9.51 log cfu/ml (sample C) and 10.20 log cfu/ml (sample D) at the end of 8 days of storage. This study revealed that incorporation of 5% ginger into ogi significantly improved its sensory attributes, led to a relatively reduced microbial load during storage and hence an improvement in the shelf stability of theproduct

Estimation of proximate composition and biogas production from in vitro gas fermentation of sweet potato (Ipomea batatas) and wild cocoyam (Colocasia esculenta) peels

The proximate composition in terms of percentage dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), crude fibre (CF), ether-extract (EE), ash, nitrogen free extract (NFE) and carbohydrate of sweet potato peel (SPP) and wild cocoyam peel (WCP) were determined. Buffered and sieved goat’s rumen liquor was added to 200mg of dried and milled SPP and WCP in 100 ml syringes supplied with C02 under anaerobic condition and incubated for 24 h. Total biogas produced was measured at 3 h intervals till the 24th h when the fermentation was terminated. The inoculum was also incubated separately. All treatments were replicated three times and readings were taken in duplicates. The proximate composition of SPP and WCP were similar except for the higher EE content (12%) of SPP. The SPP and WCP used contained 26.81 and 26.97% DM, 3.06 and 3.83% CP, and 78.94 and 79.17% carbohydrate respectively. Both samples had the same crude fibre (7.00%) content. Total biogas produced from SPP, WCP and the inoculum varied from 13.0, 11.0 and 5.0 ml respectively at the 3rd h through 66.5, 61.5 and 18.0 ml at the 18th h to 77.5, 72.0 and 30.0 ml at the 24th h respectively. The differences in biogas production across the treatments were significant (p 0.05) in the volumes of methane produced from SPP (42.5 ml) and WCP (39.5 ml) which were significantly (p < 0.05) higher than 20.0 ml produced by the inoculum. Fermentation is a cheap method to produce methane gas as fuel for domestic and industrial use, which may sanitize the environment from pollution. The remaining residue can be used as livestock feed

Predictors of Bovine TB Risk Behaviour amongst Meat Handlers in Nigeria: A Cross-Sectional Study Guided by the Health Belief Model

Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB) is still a serious public health threat in developing countries. The aim of this study is to determine the social and cognitive factors predicting one of the risk behaviours amongst meat handlers in Nigeria, namely, eating Fuku Elegusi. This is the practice of eating the visibly infected parts of the lung in-order to convince customers to buy meat. The study is guided by the health belief model (HBM).This is a cross-sectional study of 349 randomly selected meat handlers in Oko-Oba Abattoir, in Lagos State. Descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression analysis were employed to determine perceptions and prevalence of risk behaviours and to identify predictors of eating Fuku Elegusi.Just over a quarter (28.1%) of the study participants knew that eating Fuku Elegusi could be a source of bTB in humans. The prevalence of eating Fuku Elegusi was found to be 22%. Across all knowledge indicators related to bTB, those who don't eat Fuku Elegusi exhibited better knowledge. Strong predictors of eating Fuku Elegusi were: being male (OR: 2.39, 95% CI: 1.10 to 5.19; p = 0.03), not knowing that eating Fuku Elegusi exposes to bTB (OR: 3.72, 95% CI: 1.69 to 8.22; p = 0.001), and the perception that one cannot sell meat without tasting it (perceived barrier) (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.13 to 1.60; p = 0.001). Lower risk of eating Fuku Elegusi was predicted by perceived susceptibility to bTB due to another risk behaviour, namely, not washing hands after handling meat (OR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.64 to 0.96; p-value = 0.021). Television and radio were the most acceptable media for TB prevention messages (78.5% and 75.6% respectively).Meat handlers in developing countries bear high risk to bTB owing to prevailing social and cognition determinants. Findings were largely consistent with the propositions of HBM