Abstract

Babajide, J.M.1 , Oyewole, O.B.1 and Obadina, O.A.2

The microorganisms involved in dry-yam (gbodo) and water used in parboiling from different source (well, pipe-borne, river, stream and pond) were investigated. There was predominance of Staphylococcus aureus, fungi and coliforms in the gbodo samples. Coliforms were also observed in all the parboiling water. In gbodo, the total viable bacterial count was generally high, ranging from 1.1 x 106 cfu/ml from Oyo processing area to 7.8 x 105 cfu/ml from Iseyin processing areas. A large percentage of the microorganisms involved in gbodo were fungi ranging from 8.5 x 105 cfu/ml in samples collected from Abeokuta to 1.2 x 106 cfu/ml in samples from Ibarapa. S. aureus was isolated from all the dry yam samples with counts ranging from 2.5 x 103 cfu/ml in samples collected from Iseyin processing area to 9.0 x 104 cfu/ml from Baruba processing area. The control sample prepared at the laboratory has a low microorganism’ population compared with all the collected samples