You have no items in your shopping cart.
ABSTRACT
Due to insufficiency and high cost of animal milk, there is quest for milk from other sources. Tiger nut milk (TNM) a cheap local beverage, stands as good alternative milk but due to its short shelf life the milk is underutilized. This study aimed at evaluating the effect of preservatives on lactic acid bacteria (LAB) fermented tiger nut milk (FTM). The milk was treated with 3% ginger (GG), 3% cloves, 0.04% ascorbic acid and 0.04% sodium benzoate. LAB isolated from “ogi” were identified using polymerase chain reaction amplification of the 16S rRNA genes and used to ferment the pasteurized milk and stored at 28 ± 2oC and 4 ± 2 oC for 30 days respectively. The total aerobic bacterial (TAB) counts, fungal (FGL) counts and LAB counts were carried out using Nutrient agar, Potato Dextrose agar and De Mann Rogosa and Sharpe agar respectively. The pH and titratable acidity (TTA) of the FTM was examined. The sensory evaluations were determined on a 5 point hedonic scale. The results showed, the GG treated FTM had lowest pH (4.09 ± 0.03), highest TTA (5.22 ± 0.02%), highest LAB counts (5.29 ± 0.01×104 cfu/ml), highest FGL counts (4.00 ± 0.00×105 cfu/ml) while the control FTM had highest TAB counts (9.35 ± 0.01×105 cfu/ml) at 4 ± 2oC. The sensory evaluations showed that GG treated FTM had highest overall sensory score (4.70 ± 0.02) at day 15. The study demonstrated that use of preservatives on TNM fermentation would contribute to the varieties of yoghurt in the market and would also meet the needs of consumers that are allergic to animal milk products.
