Microbial Quality of Traditional Banana Alcoholic Beverages in Arusha, Tanzania

Abstract

The objective of this study was to asses the microbial quality and hygienic practices of banana alcoholic beverages produced at Arusha region. The qualitative data were obtained by survey and laboratory analysis. The results from survey which involve interviewing the production attendant selected at random from 12 small scale processing industries showed that out of 12 respondents 66.7% were male and the majority of respondents 75% had primary education level (grade school) and large number of respondents 91.7% were not have any knowledge about food handling. Wine filling is done manually by 75% of all processors. Although all production attendants wash hands before wine fillings but 83.3% use normal soap instead of disinfectant.

Total count and coliforms was found ranging from 113-253 × 10³cfu/ml, 92-254× 10³cfu/ml and 0.075-3.8 × 10³cfu/ml, 0.0015-0.77× 10³cfu/ml for prebottled and bottled banana alcoholic beverages respectively. Confirmatory test was done for the presence or absence of E-coli and some samples confirmed to have E-coli. No Samonella was detected in any sample. The unhygienic processing and bottling of banana alcoholic beverages lead to serious bacterial contamination. Consuming such contaminated product may cause a public health problem.

Keywords: traditional banana alcoholic beverages, microbial quality, hygienic practices