Abstract

This study evaluated the variation in in-situ physicochemical water quality parameters during fermentation of maize for ogi production. Triplicate sample of yellow maize was purchased from Rumuomasi, Port Harcourt, Rivers state, Nigeria. The maize was fermented for 0 – 96 hours. 2ml of the fermentation medium water was aseptically collected for microbial count enumeration using standard microbiological procedure. Similarly, the physicochemical parameters including salinity, temperature, turbidity, conductivity, pH and total dissolved solid were analyzed using in-situ meter kits. Results showed that microbial counts were 7.11 Log cfu/ml (at 0 hours) and 11.17 Log cfu/ml after 96 hours of fermentation (for total heterotrophic bacteria), 5.35 Log cfu/ml (at 0 hours) and 11.77 Log cfu/ml after 96 hours (for Lactic acid bacteria), 4.16 Log cfu/ml (at 0 hours) and 6.52Log cfu/ml after 96 hours (for yeasts/mould) and 4.12 Log cfu/ml (at 0 hours) and 0.00 Log cfu/ml after 96 hours (for the Enterobacteriaceace). Parameters increased from 114.67 to 1663.33ppm (salinity); 230.00 to 2903.33 µS/cm (conductivity); 161.33 to 2076.73 mg/l (total dissolved solid) and 65.17 to 473.33 NTU (turbidity) with fermentation; while temperature and pH values overlaps showing non-uniform trend, however they increased from 28.47 to 29.57ºC (temperature) and 3.83 to 6.37 (pH) indicating decreasing acidity as fermentation progressed. Analysis of variance showed that there were significance differences (P<0.05) among the various fermentation periods. The implications of the variation in the physicochemical and biological parameters during the fermentation process were discussed.



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