Bacteriological and Proximate Analysis of Soymilk and Kunnu Beverages Commonly Sold in Polytechnic Ede Environs in Osun – State, Nigeria

Kunun and Soymilk are fermented non alcoholic beverages widely consumed in Nigeria. This study evaluated and compared bacterial contamination of these commonly sold products in Federal Polytechnic Ede environment as well as their proximate analysis. Samples of these beverages were obtained in three different locations within the Polytechnic environment and Standard microbial analytical procedure was employed for the work. Results showed that the total bacteria count in kunnu ranged from3.5 x 10⁴cfu/ml to 6.4 x 10⁴cfu/ml while total bacterial count in soymilk ranged from 4.4 x 10⁴cfu/ml to 9.9 x 10⁴cfu/ml. Total coli form bacterial count in kunnu ranged from 1.4 x 10⁴cfu/ml to 1.8 x 10⁴cfu/ml while coliform count in soymilk ranged from 1.2 x 10⁴cfu/ml to 2.3 x 10⁴cfu/ml. The bacterial species recovered from these beverages included Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiellasp, Bacillus sp, Proteus spand Streptococcus sp. The proximate parameters determined included percentage protein, moisture, fat, ash, carbohydrate and dry matter. The values obtained from kunnu ranged from 4.34 to 6.56 percentage protein, 82.40 to 91.56 moisture, 0.45 to 0.82 ash, 1.43 to 1.58 fat, 10.82 to 19.90 carbohydrate and22.42 to 28.45 percentage dry matter. The soymilk analysis showed the percentage protein range of 5.63 to 6.68, moisture ranged from 77.50 to 87.56, fat ranged from 1.34 to 1.56, ash ranged from 1.34 to 1.55, carbohydrate ranged from 1.20 to 2.15 and percentage dry matter ranged from 8.44 to 12.46.Adequate sanitary measures should be employed during and after the production of these beverages to reduce the bacteria load, since results of this study showed that kunnu and soymilk prepared and sold in all the locations in this environment were grossly contaminated with potential pathogenic bacteria. The producers of these beverages should be enlightened on how to process in a very good hygienic environment so as to reduce the level of contamination. Proper refrigeration will also go a long way to improve the shelf life of the products.