COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE NUTRITIONAL AND MICROBIAL SAFETY OF FRIED “WARA”(LOCAL CHEESE) WIDELY HAWKED IN ILORIN AND OGBOMOSO TOWNS IN NIGERIA
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Date
2017-06
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Publisher
Annals. Food Science and Technology
Abstract
Malnutrition resulting from low protein intake is one of the nutritional problems facing developing countries including
Nigeria. Proteinaceous foods are costly and in short supply mostly in developing countries. Local cheese (called locally
wara in Nigeria) is a product that does not undergo any further treatment to ensure their safety before consumption.
Due to recent hawking of these local cheeses on our major streets and roads, there was the need to determine the
nutritional safety of the hawked products. Wara samples sourced from four different locations each at Ilorin, Kwara
State and Ogbomoso, Oyo State respectively, were analysed for nutritional and microbial safety.
The proximate composition of the samples shows moisture content and carbohydrate increased from 59.69-72.00% and
2.39-11.39% respectively over the period of storage, while protein, fat and ash contents reduced from 22.20-10.80%,
15.80-3.62% and 2.99-0.25% respectively over same period. Microbial and fungal counts showed that the samples had
microbial loads of 2.0 X 102 to 6.3 X 105 CFU/g and 2.0 X 102 to 7.1 X 105CFU/g respectively during storage.
Klebsiella and salmonella species, Escherichia coli and some fungi organisms were isolated from some of the samples.
The study revealed that some of the local cheeses (wara) being hawked on our major streets and roads are not really
safe for consumption after about three days of production, even after being fried. The short comings could be attributed
to unhygienic practices of the hawkers/producers and/or lack of requisite preservation or standardised production
conditions.
Description
Food safety
Keywords
Wara (local cheese),, Quality safety,, Hawking,, Nutrition,, Pathogens.