Experiences with the use of a starter culture in the fermentation of maize for ?kenkey? production in Ghana

Abstract

Controlled fermentation of maize was carried out using six strains of Lactobacillus fermentum and one strain of yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, isolated from traditionally fermented maize dough as starter cultures for inoculum enrichement. The fermentations were monitored by pH, acidity, microbiological analysis and taste panel evaluation of two products, kenkey and koko, prepared from the fermented doughs. The strains of L. fermentum used as starter culture dominated the microflora during fermentation and in most inoculated doughs the required pH was attained by 24 h instead of 48 h of dough fermentation. Higher contents of lactic acid bacteria and yeasts were observed in inoculated doughs at the initial stages of fermentation but the spontaneously fermented doughs attained similar lactic acid bacteria and yeasts counts by 24 h of dough fermentation. The organoleptic quality of kenkey and koko prepared from doughs fermented with starter culture for 48 h was not significantly different from the traditional products. Kenkey prepared from doughs fermented for 24 h with starter culture were found to be unacceptable by the taste panel although similarly produced koko was acceptable.

Diversity and dynamics of bacterial populations during spontaneous sorghum fermentations used to produce ting, a South African food

“…curvatus were also among the predominant species at the end of the fermentations. These results are in agreement with the generally accepted concept that traditional fermentations are dominated by a few microbial species that are selected during the course of fermentation as a result of physiological and metabolic adaptation to the food matrix [29,35]. The relative dominance of the homofermentative L. lactis over other bacteria may be due to its tolerance to low pH, which may reduce growth of heterofermentative LAB [45].…”

The chemical composition, fermentation profile, and microbial populations in tropical grass silages

“…According to Hounhouigan et al (1993) and Halm et al (1996), L. fermentum has been found to be the predominant microorganism in fermented products of cereals. Calderon et al (2003) observed that this microorganism has the ability to use starch as a substrate by producing α-amylase and that it is classified as an amylolytic lactic acid bacteria (ALAB).…”

Influence of starter culture combinations of Lactobacillus fermentum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida krusei on aroma in Ghanaian maize dough fermentation

“…Fermentation of maize dough in Ghana is traditionally spontaneous and largely uncontrolled. Attempts to standardize and improve quality as well reduce fermentation time of the Ghanaian maize dough have been carried out using starter cultures of some of the dominant microorganisms [4,5,6]. Similar studies have been done with other African fermented maize products.…”

“…The use of the dominant microorganisms, L. fermentum, S. cerevisiae and C. krusei in mixed combinations to serve as suitable starter cultures for acceptable and consistent quality characteristics of the Ghanaian fermented maize dough has been suggested by several authors [1,5,6,16,18]. In an earlier work, volatile compounds characterizing the aroma of Ghanaian fermented maize dough produced spontaneously and with the addition of single starter cultures of the dominant microorganisms were determined [19].…”