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ABSTRACT
Milk as a whitish liquid containing milk proteins, fats, lactose, vitamins and minerals. The nutritional value of milk is particularly high due to the balance of the nutrients in it. Milk has played a major contribution in human diet in many countries across the world. The aim of this study was to carry out a microbiological and physicochemical quality assessment on some commercially available pasteurized milk in Benin City. Three pasteurized milk samples each from three different brands (represented as A, B, C) with the highest market share in retail sales were selected for this study. All samples were serial diluted and inoculated on Nutrient agar, MacConkey agar, Pseudomonas centrimide agar (PCA) and Potato dextrose agar (PDA). Total bacterial counts obtained from this study ranged from 0.0 to 10.0×104 cfu/ml and 0.0 to 2.0×104 cfu/ml on nutrient agar and PCA. Total fungal counts ranged from 2.3× 105 to 7.0× 105. However, no coliform counts were reported in this study. Pure cultures were obtained and different colonies were identified using cultural and morphological techniques. The isolates include: Lactobacillus casei, Streptococcus lactis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus subtillis, Penicillum chrysogenum, Aspergillus niger, Fusarium oxysporium, Mucor mucedo and Saccharomyces sp. The pH values for the pasteurized milk samples ranged from 6.30 to 6.55 while the titratable acidity values ranged from 0.14% to 0.20%. The study revealed the presence of bacterial counts and high fungal counts in pasteurized milk which could be caused by defective pasteurization, defective machinery and post pasteurization contamination due to poor processing and handling conditions or poor hygienic practices by workers. Therefore, adequate sanitary measures should be observed at all stages of processing to consumption of the pasteurized milk to protect the milk from spoilage which eventually may pose a serious health risk to consumers.
