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ABSTRACT
Milk is known to be the complete diet found in nature as it contains fat, protein, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins and other various ingredients dispersed in water. Although, milk is virtually sterile when secreted into the alveoli of the udder, it gets contaminated during later stages of milk production. Different approaches have been used to prolong the shelf life of milk such as pasteurization and refrigeration. The aim of this study was to evaluate the bacterial quality of pasteurized and unpasteurized milk over a storage duration of 72hr. Fresh cow milk samples were obtained from a ranch in Benin City, and subjected immediately to cultural analysis upon getting to the laboratory with nutrient and mannitol salt agar using pour plate technique for bacterial enumeration. Characterization and identification of the isolated bacteria was done using standard biochemical charactersation tests. The total bacterial counts from nutrient agar had the range of 2 ± 1.41 x 103 cfu/ml on day 1 to 7.97 ± 0.66 x 104 cfu/ml on day 2, The total staphylococcal counts had a range of 1 ± 0.00 x 102 cfu/ml on day 1 to 5.35 ± 0.91 x 105 cfu/ml on day 3. The bacteria identified from this study are Klebsiella pneumonia Escherichia coli, Micrococcus roseus, Kingella kingae, Klebsiella sp., Acidaminococcus sp., Bacillus cereus, Serratia sp.and Acinetobacter sp. The highest frequency of occurrence was recorded by Klebsiella pneumonia with 18.6%. From this study, it is evident that subjecting milk to pasteurization and refrigerating the product can promote prolonged shelf life.. Additionally, worker sensitization is important and ensuring hygienic working conditions and maintaining sanitary protocols can not be overemphasized.
