ASSESSMENT OF olea africana (CHARCOAL) AND xylopia aethopion ('KIMBA') AS PRESERVATIVES ON MICROBIOLOGICAL SAFETY OF MILK

Abstract

A Comparative study of two traditional methods of milk preservation on microbiological safety was designed and conducted in two stages. The first stage was a survey which identified various methods of preservation of milk as well as the consumption pattern of traditional milk products in the study area. The second stage was a laboratory activity where two traditional preservatives (Xylopia aethopica (kimba) and charcoal) were used to preserve milk for 24 hours at six hours interval to investigate the microbiological safety of milk. Data from the survey were expressed in descriptive statistics while data on microbiological analysis was analyzed using ANOVA. The survey result shows that (70%) of the respondents were female and mostly used traditional methods (82.5%) in preserving milk. 77.5% do not add any substance to the milk for preservation, but (22.5%) of respondents add traditional substances to preserve milk. The main reason mentioned by the respondents was to add flavor (70 %) and extend the shelf-life of milk. Data on microbial load shows that except at zero hours, there was significant difference (P < 0.05) among all treatments. A trend was observed in that, for control samples, increase in preservation time lead to increase in microbial count, however, for the treated samples, a decrease in microbial count was observed with increase in preservation time, suggesting that the traditional preservatives had antimicrobial effect. Staphylococcus, E.coli and Bacillus spp. were the bacteria isolated from the milk. It was concluded that a decrease in microbial count was observed with increase in preservation time for treated samples with xylopia aethopion (‗kimba‘) having lower bacterial count.