Microbial evaluation and some proposed good manufacturing practices of locally prepared malted corn drink (“asaana”) and Hibiscus sabdarifa calyxes extract (“sobolo”) beverages sold at a university cafeteria in Ghana.

Abstract In most developing countries street food vending remains a growing industry providing daily foods for most urban dwellers. Sorrel drink (Sobolo) is a drink made from Hibiscus sabdariffa extract, while ‘‘Asaana’’ is a refreshing drink made from maize. These drinks are mostly produced on a fairly small scale and usually for local consumption at home or vended on the street. These beverages are now widely patronized drinks sold on the streets of Ghana. Despite their high patronage, microbial contamination from the preparation to packaging raises concerns. This study evaluated the microbial quality of these locally prepared beverages ‘‘Asaana’’ and “Sobolo” sold at the cafeterias of two different campuses of a university in Ghana. For sobolo, total plate count of range 7.60 × 106 - 1.58 × 108 CFU/ml was recorded while a range of 0-4.8 × 107 CFU/ml was recorded for E.coli. A similar trend was observed for asana. Fungal counts also ranged 2.29- 4.86 log10 CFU/ml and 2.098- 4.23 log10 CFU/ml for sobolo and asana respectively. All samples collected exceeded tolerable limits of 106 for microorganisms in ready to eat foods. samples analyzed were acidic in nature, most bacteria cannot thrive under this condition with the exception of aciduric bacteria such as lactobacillus species and temperatures of these samples ranged from 9.5ᵒC to 14.5ᵒC which is conducive for the survival and growth of microorganisms hence, resulting in high counts of microorganisms in these beverages.