Research Article - Journal of Food Science and Nutrition (2020) Volume 3, Issue 6

Microbial evaluation of fermented milk and millet beverage (brukina) produced in Ghana by culture-independent technique.

Fermented food products have been reported to have great nutritional value however artisanal fermentation practices can comprise on food safety and quality. Brukina, a fermented milk and millet smoothie was used as a model to determine the influence of these fermentation practices on the bacterial populations present in the sample. Using 16S rRNA sequencing technique, it was observed that the bacterial populations were assigned to five main phyla; Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Deinococcus-Thermus, Actinobacteria and Bacteriodetes with Firmicutes making up greater than 90% of the bacterial communities present. Most of the Firmicutes were lactic acid bacteria of the genera Lactobacillus, Sreptococcus, Leuconostoc, Lactococcus and Weisella. Pathogenic genera such as Enterobacter, Yersinia and Sarcina were detected in the samples but in low abundance of phylum Proteobacteria and Firmicutes were also detected in the samples but in low abundance. Since these pathogenic genera are mainly environmental pathogens or associated with the human gut it suggest that adherence to safety protocol could limit their presence in food samples and improve on food safety.

Author(s): Adjoa A. Boakye, Clement O. Tettey, Louisa E. Mackay, Nii K. Kortei, Edward K. Essuman

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