An Assessment of Potassium Bromide and Aspergillus Flavus Contamination in Bakery Products Sold in Bamenda

Abstract: Bakery products especially bread are staple foods in the world and are
recognized as semi- perishable foods. Usually, spoilage is due to improper storage.
This work was aimed at isolating and identifying Potassium bromide and Aspergillus
flavus contaminants in bakery products sold in Bamenda. The study was a crosssectional study in which 25 samples of bakery products were conveniently purchased
at random from different vendors and bakeries in Bamenda. The hypothesis of the
study was prevalence of toxigenic fungi and potassium bromide in bakery products
sold in Bamenda is high. The isolation and identification were done by their cultural
and morphological characteristics by doing Lactophenol Cotton Blue staining of the
various mould forms that grew on Saboraud Dextrose Agar and then examining under
the microscope. The organisms found to be associated with spoilage of bakery
products were strictly fungal organisms which included; Penicillium species (40%),
Mucor species (26.67%), Aspergillus species (20%) and Fusarium species (13.33%).
After analysing the samples, Penicillium species was found to be the most occurring
in bakery products consistent with the study carried out by Legan J.D (1993), a clear
prove that good hygienic handling of bakery products is essential, therefore, further
investigation on isolation, identification and characterization with a larger sample size
is very important.
Qualitative determination of Potassium bromide showed that 40% of the bread
samples were positive for potassium bromide consistent with the study carried out by
H.B Alhanashi et al (2020), a clear prove that Potasssium bromate is used as a dough
improver in backery products in Bamenda, therefore further investigation with a
quantitative analysis and on a larger sample size is important.