“Tapioca” is a pregelled, snow white, bland, shredded and dried cassava product. Tapioca serve as “Ready to eat or fast food”. It serves as delicacy and as food in ceremonies. It is also a good source of carbohydrates, Protein and Vitamins. This research work examined the bacterial flora associated with tapioca. Samples of prepared tapioca were analyzed by homogenizing little portion of each samples collected each day in a stenle distilled water. The extracts were conteatifuged and were used to prepare a serial dilutions for each sample until the tenth tube which gave a final dilution of 10-10 were achieved. Inoculation were done using the ninth and tenth dilutions of each sample into the plates labelled accordingly. The media used were Nutrient agar, MacConkey agar and Blood agar. After incubation of 24 hrs at room temperature, the bacterial flora insolated form the samples were Escherichia Coli Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus Subtilis and Coliforms. The average viable count conducted showed that Escherichia cdi has the highest colony count. This may be due to differences in the source of water, air utensils, packaging, the hygienic standard of the sellers and their environment during and after processing.
CHAPTER TWO:
Poisoning and their Symptoms 9
CHAPTER FIVE:
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 33
References 35
Appendix 38
Table 2: Mean bacterial count per ml for four samples
Table 3: Total percentage of bacterial count for four samples
Table 4: Morphological characteristics of isolates on Blood agar for four samples
Table 5: Morphological characteristics of isolates on MacConkey agar for four samples
Table 6: Morphological characteristics of isolates on Nutrient agar for four samples
Table 7: Confirmatory result of the organisms suspected
Fig 1: The serial dilution technique
Fig 2: The streak plate technique
Fig 3: Staphylococcus aureus
Fig 4: Escherichia coli
Fig 5: Bacillus subtilis
INTRODUCTION
“Tapioca” (Cassava flakes) is described by Okaka in 1997 as a pregelled, snow white, bland, shredded and dried cassava product. In tapioca processing, raw cassava tubers are uprooted from the farm, cut out form the root and washed to remove the dirt and soil, it is cooked in a boiling water to infuse colloids stickiness and get long strands, then it is pealed to get the edible parts and then shredded with a shredding machine. The shredded tubers are allowed to ferment for 24 hours in a basin filled with ordinary water, even the cassava is washed several times to remove the stickiness. The wet materials are sieved to drain excess water, dried in the sun for preservative purpose during which a considerable portion of available moisture in the food material is removed and gynogenic glycoside in the tubers is decomposed thereby releasing hydrogen cyniade (HCN) Onwueme (1977). The dried cassava contains 10-12% water, 60-72% starch, 0-01 – 0.02% glycoside reported Viktorova (1983). According to (Ihekeronye and Ngoddy 1985), detoxification of cassava consist the removal of the poisoning cynogenic glycoside which consist mainly lataustralin and linamanna. It is during processing such as fermentation, peeling, grating, boiling and drying in the sun that cassava becomes detoxified. (Collard and Levis 1987) and Akinerle (1984) attributed, the detoxification of cassava to the action of bacterium called Corynebacterium manihot which breaks down IIe starch to sugar and ultimately to organic which decreases the PH and leads to the hydrolysis of linaniarin and lataustralin during which gaseous hydrogen cyananic acid (HCN) is evolved. Cassava is processed into Tapioca to increase its shelf life, make for variety of product, portability and removal of cyanide. Processing also preserves the food form decomposition and makes it available for future use (Ihekeronye and Ngoddy 1985). The processing of cassava product into tapioca make it easy for transportation and packaging compared to the bulky fresh nature.
The dried cassava product (tapioca) is of many significances to the society, example, it serves as “ready to eat food”, it also serve as delicacy and as food in the ceremonies. “Tapioca” can also serve as source of income in the society and so on.
This study is aimed at determining the prevalence of bacteria in the tapioca sold in Institute of Management and Technology Enugu.
To determine the level of bacteria that can cause food poisoning after consumption.
Microorganisms are found everywhere in nature. Some of these are pathogenic in nature and can multiply freely, others exists as transient microorganisms while some exist also as facultative anaerobes. In different shops in IMT Enugu for food sellers, prepared tapioca are left open form the time they started selling till the time they finish selling and such extended exposure can allow the growth of microorganisms into the tapioca and when ingested by the consumer can cause food poisoning. Sometimes, saliva due to excess talking of the seller contaminates the food and when taken in by consumer may cause gastroenteritis. Therefore the problem lies at the unhygienic practice by the sellers before and while selling the food to the consumers.
To enlighten the food handlers to appreciate clean environment because most bacteria discovered to be implicated in the food like tapioca is due to unhygienic practice (Olatunji 1984).
Also to create awareness to the academic world that there us tendency of bacteria growth on the food that is exposed to air for a longtime ad the implication is food poisoning.
This work is limited to the use of three media like Nutrient agar, MacConkey agar and Blood agar to examine the bacteria implicated in tapioca. It is also limited to Institute of Management and Technology Enugu due to insufficient time to go other areas.
Limited samples of tapioca were collected due to lack of funds.
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