Total Microbial Count and Nutritional Analysis of Four Weaning Foods Sold in Benin City

Abstract

Four (4) different weaning food samples purchased from Oba market located in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria encoded A, B, C and Ogi (Nigerian indigenous weaning food) respectively were analyzed for their microbial and nutritional content in this study. Enumeration of total aerobic viable count was done using Nutrient agar. Eosin methylene blue (EMB) agar was used for coliform count, Salmonella - Shigella agar was used for Salmonella and Shigella count, mannitol salt agar for staphylococcal count and Sabouraud dextrose agar for mould and yeast counts. Total aerobic counts of organisms in weaning food C (21 ± 1.4 ×10³ cfu g ^-1) was significantly (P< 0.05)  higher while weaning B and A had lowest aerobic count  of 0.5 ± 0.04 ×10³ cfu g ^-1 and 0.5 ± 0.07 ×10³ cfu g ^-1 respectively. Ogi has a total aerobic count of 1.0 x 10⁴.  No Salmonella - Shigella count was observed in all weaning foods sampled. Coliform count and fungi and mould counts were only observed in Ogi and weaning food C. High percentage carbohydrate (73.75 ± 0.61) and moisture (9.3 ± 0.8) was observed in ogi.