Isolation and Analysis of Bacteria from Masa sold at Gwako Market

Masa, a popular traditional fermented rice cake, is widely consumed as a ready-toeat (RTE) food in Nigeria. This study was aimed at investigating the bacteriological quality of Masa sold at Gwako Market. Twelve (12) different samples were aseptically collected from four different vendors in a sterile container and plated on agar using spread plate method in which three aerobic mesophilic bacteria was isolated which are Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. The result from this study showed that there is high bacterial count in the Masa samples. The total bacterial count (TBC) of bacterial isolates ranges from 2.0 x108 to 3.0 x 108 CFU/g and the total colifoms count (TTC) ranges from 1.5x106 to 2.7x106. This study suggests that Masa could pose a threat to health of consumer based on the types and numbers of pathogenic microorganisms isolated from the samples and are therefore unfit for human consumption. Therefore, adequate sanitary measures should be taken at each stage from production, storage to consumption.