Evaluation of processing methods and microbial analysis of Pito (an African indigenous beer), at selected production sites in Ghana
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Date
OCTOBER, 2015
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Abstract
Pito is an African indigenous sorghum-beer brewed on household basis. The brewery
processes in assuring the quality of the drink have not been clearly defined nor
studied. To evaluate the brewery processes at selected pito brewery sites in Ghana, the
study adopted oral interviews/survey, observations and laboratory tests that sought to
elucidate the presence of aflatoxins in the drink and to quantify and identify the yeasts
and moulds present. Qualitative coliform tests were also performed on the drink to
ascertain the hygienic conditions of the brewery sites. Pito samples were taken from
selected centres at dominant pito producing areas; Upper West Region (Nandom),
Northern Region (Tamale) and Ashanti Region (Kumasi). The survey results revealed
there were currently five processing methods being used to brew the drink in the
selected regions. The processing methods were similar but sequentially different. Pito
samples from Kumasi showed the highest moulds contamination of 3.7 x 10
3
± 0.424
and 1.3 x 10
3
± 0.424 at Ayeduase and Tech-Junction respectively compared to all the
other samples. The moulds identified in the drink were Aspergillus clavatus, Mucor
hiemalis, Cladosporium sphaerospemum and Cladosporium herbarum.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Debaryomyces hansenii and Pichia anomala were also
isolated as the yeast species in the drink. There was no aflatoxin in all the beverage
samples collected but malted grains samples collected from Tech-Junction in Kumasi
showed aflatoxin concentration of 9.58 ppb. Coliforms test using violet red bile agar
were also negative for all the samples.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Science in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Food Science and Technology.