Accessing The Bacteria Contamination Level Of Commercially Available Fried Cassava Flour “Garri” In Some Major Markets Of The Bamenda City, North West Region Of Cameroon

Garri is one of the most important food commodities that is being consumed in almost all the ten regions of Cameroon and it cuts across all social standards being the rich or the poor. The consumption of this commodityis more rampant among students in the universities because it is easy to prepare and can be eaten as snack in cold water or boiled water to make a paste or even dry after production. The aim of this study was to investigate the bacteria content of this product and to know if the conditions that are employed during its production and distribution in the markets render the product to some extern not good for consumption without further processing like in boiled water before consumption so as to reduce the bacteria load. Bacteria such as the coliforms, Staphylococcus and Clostridium species were of major interest in this research. The sample size was estimated at 60 in which 20 samples where gotten from each of the three main markets of the Bamenda city which included, the Bamenda main market Mankon, Ntarinkon main market, and Nkwen main market. The samples were analyzed using microbial culture technique in which the following culture media were used each for a particular purpose, Nutrient agar to check for general bacterial contamination of the Garri, Manitol salt agar (MSA) to isolate colonies on nutrient agar and check for gram positive cocci in the spacemen, Eosin methylene blue agar (EMB) to isolate enterobacteriae.g E. coli, Salmonella shigella agar to isolate Salmonella and Shigella The Bamenda city was selected for this research base on balloting by number tag and the samples obtain in the above mentioned market in a randomized manner. The garri samples were sucked In sterile water (o.9 Normal saline solution) and the supernatant used in making 10 fold dilution and a dilution of 0.001 was inoculated on the nutrient agar by pour plate method. After 24 hours, colonies were isolated on the NA and a 10 fold dilution conducted again and inoculated on MSA, EMB and SSA respectively and allow for 24hours. After this time, colonies were found growing on the MSA and that could consume the manitolsalt and change the colourof the medium from pink to yellow in 75% of the samples from Mankon main market, 90% of the samples from Ntarinkon main market and 60% that from Nkwen main market. In all the samples
obtained, no isolate of coliforms were found