Brukina, a fermented milk, and millet smoothie, is a popular indigenous beverage in
Ghana. Its production is dominated within the Northern regions of Ghana.
Brukina is
considered as a complete meal due to its high nutrient and energy density. There are,
however, quality and safety gaps associated with the traditional production of
brukina
which limits patronage, shelf-life and nutritional benefits. This study evaluated the
microbiological quality at selected
brukina production steps and the retailed
brukina
drink. Samples were taken along the production chain from four major traditional
brukina producers within the Greater Accra region and analysed for the total viable
count, total coliforms,
Staphylococcus aureus
, yeasts and moulds, and pH. The mean
microbial concentrations for traditionally produced and marketed products were 7.48
Log CFU/mL for total viable counts, 2.91 Log CFU/mL for total coliforms, 4.68 Log
CFU/mL for
S. aureus and 5.25 Log CFU/mL for yeasts and moulds. Mean pH of the
finished product on the market was 4.35. The microbial counts along the production
chain were generally high, revealing poor hygienic handling and need for process
optimization. Data generated from microbiological analyses of commercial
brukina, food
safety audits from previous studies and CODEX code of hygienic practices were used as
guidelines to optimize the traditional process operations and develop a Standard
Operating Procedure (SOP) for hygienic production of traditional
brukina.
Implementation of the SOP in a controlled environment reduced the total count by 4.28
Log CFU/mL at
P=0.000 and total coliforms by 3.63 Log CFU/mL at
P=0.035 at all the
tested production steps. The optimized
brukina had a mean total count of 4.06 Log
CFU/mL and undetectable levels of total coliforms and
S. aureus. Critical control steps
in traditional production operations were identified as the steaming of milled and
agglomerated millet and milk pasteurization. The SOP developed provides a low
technology solution to improve quality and safety of traditional
brukina.
