Background:Traditional Beninese fermented food Degue is widely consumed in Benin and other countries in West Africa. It was originally made from milk and millet flour, but currently other cereals are used as well. Nowadays, Degue production occurs by spontaneous fermentation in individual households and information about the microorganisms involved is currently limited.Objective:The microbiota of Degue from Benin has not been studied so far, but its growing production in the country sets a demand for revealing the biodiversity of the microbial population involved in the fermentation process in order to take future steps for development of industrial technology and offer products with improved quality and safety.Method:In the present study, yeast and lactic acid bacteria from raw materials for Degue production and from several Degue products were isolated and identified by molecular methods including RFLP and ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 rRNA gene sequence analysis in yeasts, and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis in lactic acid bacteria.Results:Lactic acid bacteria isolates were assigned to eight species within the generaLactobacillus,Enterococcus,Pediococcus,StreptococcusandWeisella. Four species of yeasts were found in Degue:Cyberlyndnera fabianii,Candida glabrata,Kluyveromyces marxianus, andMeyerozyma caribbica.Conclusion:The microbial population revealed is unique to Beninese Degue and needs further characterization for development of defined starter cultures.

Foodstuffs is a favorable environment for microorganism's growth. Thus, the germs likely to be found in these foods can be at the base of several food poisoning. The objective of the study was to evaluate the microbiological quality of some foods prepared and sold in Benin. To do this, a prospective descriptive survey was conducted in five major cities (Cotonou, Abomey-Calavi, Porto-Novo, Lokossa and Abomey) of Benin. It collected samples of salted bread, soy cheese and three yogurt varieties (Dolait, Tropical and Comtesse) for microbiological analyzes. Out of the three varieties of yoghurt, the results of the work revealed that the microbial loads in CFU / g of salty breads and soy cheeses respectively amounted to 21.48 10 3 and 25.73 10 3 in total flora, 11.50 10 2 and 22.29 10 2 in total coliforms, 7.40 10 2 and 12.6110 2 in thermo-tolerant coliforms, 60.80 10 2 and 217.84 10 2 in staphylococci then 21.43 10 2 and 113.24 10 2 in yeast were not in accordance with the values required by the criteria of Standard No. 2073/2005. The identification of isolated organisms showed that salty breads and soy cheeses contained the bacteria of interest in toxi-food infections such as Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, Shigella sp., Citrobacter fameri, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter cloacae, Raoultella ornithinolytica, Escherichia coli and Enterobacter aerogenes. This shows that these foods require better health surveillance for the well-being of the populations.

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P.butyracea butter, produced by different traditional methods, is often stored for further use in different types of packaging which may affect its quality. The present work aims to evaluate the effect of the production method and the type of packaging used on the physicochemical and microbiological quality of butter during storage. The extraction of Pentadesma butter was first carried out through production monitoring in three repetitions by three different butter producers according to the two most used traditional production methods. Then, butter from production was stored for three months in four types of packaging (aluminium bowls, calabashes, baskets, and black polyethylene bags) in the production environment. The microbiological and physicochemical quality of the stored butter was assessed at 0, 30, 60, and 90 days using normative reference methods. The production method and the type of packaging used had a significant effect on the variation of free fatty acid content (1.54 ± 0.07%–2.6 ± 0.2%), peroxide value (0.96 ± 0.09°meq·O2/Kg–3.9 ± 0.7°meq·O2/Kg), and colour of the butter during storage. In contrast, only the type of packaging material influenced the microbiological characteristics of the butter during storage. After three months of storage, the yeast and mould load was out of the standard range in all packages, i.e., 2.53 ± 0.4 log°CFU/g, 2.9 ± 0.2 log°CFU/g, 4.67 ± 0.2 log°CFU/g, and 1.4 ± 0.2 log°CFU/g for aluminium bowls, calabashes, baskets, and black polyethylene bags, respectively. The aerobic mesophilic germ load was within the standard in black polyethylene bags (3.22 ± 0.08 log°CFU/g), in contrast to the other packages (4.23 ± 0.08 log°CFU/g–6.45 ± 0.13 log°CFU/g). This shows that black polyethylene bags are the best packaging to guarantee the quality of butter. It is important to continue this investigation by storing butter for a longer period of time with more appropriate packaging.

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