Abstract:
Proximate, mineral and microbial analysis of kunu drinks obtained from three different cereal sources (maize, millet and guinea corn) were carried out. The proximate parameters determined include percentage moisture, ash, protein, total solid, pH and acidity, while Fe, Zn, Ca, K and Mn concentrations were also evaluated. Maximum proximate values in millet, guinea corn and maize were obtained to be 90.7, 87.7 and 90.04% for moisture contents, 2.0, 1.9 and 1.78% for ash contents, 6.4, 10.3 and 7.8% for total solid contents, 8.4, 5.8 and 3.32% for protein contents respectively. Maximum pH values were obtained to be 4.30, 5.00 and 4.20 for millet, guinea corn and maize respectively which indicate slight acidity of the various kunu drinks. Microbial analysis
revealed that four species of bacteria and fungi were isolated and identified from the kunu drinks are
Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, and Streptococcus sp, while the fungi isolated are Mucor, Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus nidulans. This article concludes that the enrichment of kunu-zaki with powder milk improved the nutritious values of the beverage
