Microbial Biotechnology and Dairy Science Laboratory, Department of Animal production, University of Ilorin, Nigeria
Belewu, M.A., Microbial Biotechnology and Dairy Science Laboratory, Department of Animal production, University of Ilorin, Nigeria; Belewu, K.Y., Microbial Biotechnology and Dairy Science Laboratory, Department of Animal production, University of Ilorin, Nigeria; Ganiyu, R.O., Microbial Biotechnology and Dairy Science Laboratory, Department of Animal production, University of Ilorin, Nigeria
The efficacy of Lemon grass oil (Cymbopogon citrates), pure natural honey and whey in extending the shelf life of West African soft cheese was evaluated in a completely randomized design model. The treatments include Lemon grass oil (A). Pure natural honey (B); and the Control (Whey (C). The nutritional composition revealed increased dry matter content for Treatments A and B which are similar (p>0.05) but significantly higher than the control (C). The crude fat was significantly higher in the control (C) and least in Treatments B and A in that order. The Lemon grass oil treated sample (A) had the highest crude protein content while the crude protein content of B and C was 15.64% and 12.62% respectively. The ash content ranged between 4.51 and 1.17% and it was greatest for Treatment A, greater in the control (C) and great in Treatment B. The Influence of Lemon grass oil on the cheese was noticed, with lowest bacterial count (21cfu/g ×103). However, the highest total bacterial count of 140cfu/g ×103 was recorded for the Control treatment (C) while honey treated sample had 73cfu/g ×103. Contrarily, the fungal count of honey treated sample (B) was 12cfu/g × 102 followed closely by A (10cfu/g × 102) Lemon grass oil and 30cfu/g × 102 for C. Isolation of various bacterial and fungi from the samples revealed the presence of Lactobacillus cocci, Lactobacillus planterium, Micrococcus luteus, Aspergillus niger and Rhizopus oryzae in the Control sample (C). With the exception of Micrococcus luteum which was negative in the honey treated sample (B) other aforementioned fungi and bacterial species are found to be positive /present. It is enough to note that Lemon grass oil prevent the cheese against Micrococcus luteus, Lactobacillus planterium and Rhizopus oryzae.The presence of antmicrobial activity of Lemon grass oil may be responsible for increasing the shelf life of the cheese sample. It could be concluded from this study that preservation of cheese with Lemon grass oil enhanced the nutritional quality and shelf life of the sample.