Microbiological quality of re-packaged sweets sold in metropolitan Kano, Nigeria

Abstract

Some readily-available sweet samples comprising of three brands coded A, B and C re-packaged for sale in Kurmi market of metropolitan Kano, Nigeria were microbiologically examined for the load and type of bacteria and fungi. Samples from brand A had average aerobic bacterial and fungal counts of 5.40 x 102 cfu/g and 1.30 x 102 cfu/g respectively. Samples from brand B had average aerobic bacterial and fungal counts of 5.40 x 102 cfu/g and 1.00 x 102 cfu/g respectively while
samples from brand C had aerobic bacterial and fungal counts of 1.30 x 104 cfu/g and 6.80 x 102 cfu/g respectively. The moisture contents were 13.2%, 13.4% and 14.1% for the A, B and C brands of the sweets respectively. Cultural, morphological and biochemical characterization of the isolates showed the presence of two bacterial genera (Staphylococcus and Bacillus) and five fungal genera (Penicillium, Aspergillus, Mucor, Rhizopus and Fusarium) as the predominant contaminants. The average bacterial and fungal counts for the control were 6.00 x 101 cfu/g and 1.30 x 101 cfu/g respectively while the moisture content was 3.3%. The practice of re-packaging of industrial remnants should be discouraged as this predisposes the wholesome products to contamination.

Keywords: Microbiological quality, re-packaged sweets, Kurmi market, Kano.