The study was carried out in order to establish the suitability of fermented soybean condiment as an alternative to fermented locust bean condiment in meal preparations. The dried fermented condiments were subjected to chemical, microbial and sensory evaluation using standard methods. Results revealed significantly (p<0.05) higher protein (54.06%), ash (6.21%), crude fat (14.15%) and pH (8.90) content in fermented soybean condiment. Higher values of 44.72 mg/100 g, 20.06 mg/100 g, 612.40 mg/100 g and 164.34 mg / 100 g were also observed in fermented soybean condiment with respect to iron, magnesium, potassium, and calcium respectively. Furthermore, fermented soybean condiment revealed significantly (p<0.05) higher vitamin content of 647.62 UI/100 g, 0.047 mg/100 g and 0.030 mg/100 g for pro-vitamin A (β-Carotene), vitamins B1 and B2 respectively. Microbiologically, total plate count of 1.7×105 CFU/g and 1.4×105 CFU/g were observed for fermented soybean and locust bean condiments respectively. There was however no fungal growth observed in both condiments. Isolation and characterization of bacteria isolates revealed Bacillus subtilis as the common microorganism in both condiments. Bacillus licheniformis was predominant in locust bean condiment, while Bacillus pumilus was more in soybean condiment. With the exception of appearance, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) between the condiments in terms of their sensory attributes. Sensory scores for fermented soybean condiment were however higher than that of fermented African locust bean. From this study, soybean condiment may be a suitable substitute to locust bean (Parkia biglobosa) condiment, following the gradual extinction of the plant.

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The aim of this research was to evaluate the fungal and aflatoxin content of smoke dried catfish and African bush mango seeds obtained from selected processing zones in Benue State, Nigeria. Thirty two smoke dried catfish samples and forty eight African bush mango seed samples were collected from different markets in Makurdi, Katsina-Ala, Ogbadibo, Kwande and Vandeikya. These were analyzed for fungal load, fungi species and aflatoxin contamination using standard microbiological methods and ELISA technique for aflatoxin determination. The results revealed the presence of Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Clasdosporium spp, Penicillium spp, Mucorspp and Fusarium spp isolated from both smoke dried catfish and African bush mango seeds; also Rhizopus spp and Saccharomyces spp from bush mango seeds. Fungal count of smoke dried catfish from Makurdi ranged from 3.28 to 4.61 logCFU/ml while that of Katsina-Ala ranged from 4.26 to 4.98 log CFU/ml. The fungal count of African bush mango seeds ranged from 3.62 to 3.94 log CFU/ml (Kwande), 3.61 to 4.93 log CFU/ml (Makurdi), 3.61 to 4.85 log CFU/ml (Ogbadibo) and 4.08 to 4.89 logCFU/ml (Vandeikya). The aflatoxin concentration in the smoke dried catfish samples ranged from 4.10 to 15.00 ppb for samples from Makurdi and 2.05 to 7.45 ppb for samples from Katsina-Ala, while that of African bush mango seeds ranged from 1.75 to 3.25 ppb (Kwande), 0.00 to 1.50 ppb (Makurdi), 1.08 to 8.10 ppb (Ogbadibo) and 0.00 to 1.65 ppb (Vandeikya). Both the smoke dried catfish and African bush mango seeds had aflatoxin levels below the maximum acceptable limit of 20ppb by National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control which can be considered safe, but hygienic measures must be maintained in handling such foods and better drying and preservation techniques applied in order to lower the incidence of fungi growth and aflatoxin contamination.

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Soymilk, the rich creamy liquid extract of soybean, is a popular nutritive alternative to cow's milk. It is consumed widely, especially in developing countries, as a cheap source of protein and calories, as a cheaper substitute to cow milk in solving malnutrition problems due to its nearly balanced content of essential amino acids, has similar physical and chemical attributes to cow milk, is suitable for all ages from infants to the elderly and can be freely consumed by populations who cannot digest milk due to lactose intolerance, allergy to milk protein or vegetarian way of diet (Ikya et al., 2013;Iwe, 2003;Varghese & Pare, 2019). Being a high-moisture, highly nutritious, low-acidity fluid with a pH ranging between 6.0 and 7.0, it is prone to microbial growth and activity.A. hydrophila has increasingly been recognized as an enteric pathogen in the past few years. It is an emerging food borne pathogen that can pose critical threat to human health (Fadel & Ellamine, 2019;Igbinosa et al., 2012;Park et al., 2021) and its contamination leads to economic losses in food industries (Ma et al., 2021).Due to the nature of its normal habitat, A. hydrophila is found in many foods, including ready-to-eat foods and have been isolated from dairy products, meat and poultry, seafood, vegetables and