MICROBIAL SPOILAGE OF CANNED TOMATO SOLD IN BENIN CITY

Abstract

Tomato (solanum lycopersicum), is one of the most important vegetable crop of the solanaceae family, grown all over the world for food and other economic purposes. The microbial spoilage of canned tomato of varying product brands was investigated in this study. It was observed that the total aerobic and anaerobic counts were less than 103 cells which were within acceptable limit. Two of the canned product had no microbial count, while the others had counts varying from 2 x 101 to 5 x 101 for aerobic count of freshly opened tomato, and 1 x 101 to 2 x 101 for anaerobic count. However, aerobic count of spoilt canned tomato product ranged from 4.2 x 104 to 9.1 x 104 across all six products investigated. Anaerobic count of spoilt canned tomato ranged from 2.5 x 104 to 6.8 x 104. Isolated organisms obtained from spoilt canned tomato samples revealed the presence of Bacillus ploymyxa, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus lactis, Pseudomonas, sp., Clostridium sporogenes, Bacillus coagulans, Saccharomyces sp., Candida sp., Mucor sp., Aspergillus niger, and Penicillium sp. These organisms were implicated in the spoilage of canned tomato products sold in Benin City. When these products are consumed immediately after opening, they are safe because the microbial load on fresh product is within acceptable regulatory standard.