Effects of glucose and clove treatment on the microbial load of Bunyi Youri during fermentation and solar tent drying of the product

“Bunyi youri” is a Nigerian fermented sun-dried fish product used as condiment in soups. This study was carried out to determine the effects of glucose and clove treatment on the microbial quality of the fermented and solar tent-dried product. A total of 24 isolates were obtained from the “Bunyi youri” samples analyzed, Micrococcus sp. was the predominant constituting 45.83% of the isolates, while Bacillus sp., Staphylococcus sp., Leuconostoc sp. and Streptococcus sp. constituted 29.17, 12.5, 8.33 and 4.17% of the isolates, respectively. Treatment of the samples with glucose resulted in an increase of the total aerobic plate count from an initial 2.11×103 cfu/g in unfermented raw fish samples to an average of 2.05×105 cfu/g during a 24 hour fermentation; the mean total plate count decreased to 9.73×102 cfu/g after the solar tent drying of the product. An improvement in the fermentation was observed as a result of the incorporation of glucose which increased the growth rate of the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and which, in combination with clove resulted in a reduction of the spoilage bacteria in the final processed products.