PROXIMATE AND MICROBIAL LOAD EVALUATION OF CASSAVA PATTIES (WAINAR ROGO) PRODUCED WITH GINGER POWDER

In the recent years, cassava and its by-products have become increasingly popular in Northern Nigeria due to their affordability. However, the traditional method of preparing cassava patties (wainar rogo) using palm can introduce microorganisms into the food, potentially leading to foodborne illnesses and compromising its nutritional value. This study seeks to investigate and conduct a comparative analysis of the microbial load of cassava patties prepared with and without ginger, in order to determine the most effective formulation for minimizing the risk of foodborne diseases. The sensory evaluation, proximate analysis and microbiological analysis of the cassava patties were carried out using Hedonic scale, Standard methods by Association of Analytical Chemist (AOAC) and standard plate count respectively. The results show that cassava patties without ginger have the most preferred appearance, taste flavor, texture and overall acceptability with 8.70±0.67, 8.6±0.699, 8.2±0.92, 8.2±1.03, respectively compared to cassava patties with ginger. The results for proximate analysis show that cassava patties without ginger have high moisture content, crude fat, crude fiber and carbohydrates compared to cassava patties with ginger with 5.65±2.24, 12.1±2.20, 7.25±1.85 and 47.48±25.70, respectively while the cassava patties with ginger has high ash content and crude protein with 11.75±1.84 and 9.25±0.954. The microbiological analysis results show that the cassava with ginger have less bacterial and fungal load with 4.8×10⁴ CFU/ml and 2.9×10⁴CFU/ml compared to cassava patties without ginger, which show Too Numerous To Count (TNTC). The study expressed the need of adding ginger as natural antimicrobial to reduce the microbial load of cassava patties (wainar rogo). More studies are needed to identify the specific microorganisms present in the cassava patties (wainar rogo).