Quality Assessment of Cow Milk Sold in Some Major Towns of Yobe State

Abstract

Conveying milk from villages and settlements to towns is a routine profitable business by the local inhabitants in Yobe State, and because majority of these people are not well informed or educated on the proper way of milk handling, coupled with the fact that milk is a rich medium for bacterial growth, it’s therefore becoming necessary to protect consumers from food-borne diseases through contaminated milk. This necessitates undertaking the assessment of cow milk sold in some major towns in Yobe State, which was carried out between November 2022 and May 2023, to ascertain the level of milk contamination or hygiene in ten (10) selected towns comprising of Damaturu, Tarmuwa, Bursary, Geidam, Gashua, Jakusko, Buni-Yadi, Potiskum, Fika, and Fune, Milk samples were randomly collected and kept in icebox before transporting it to the laboratory under chilled conditions within 2 hours for analysis using Methylene blue dye reduction test method. The results revealed that more than 50% of the milk that was analyzed fell within the graded range of ‘good and excellent’, with milk samples from Bursary, Potiskum and Buni-Yadi appearing to be the safest milk having graded excellent and good milk respectively. This is because none of the milk samples from these towns were graded ‘poor’. Other milk samples from Fune, Gashua, Geidam and Bursary have over 60% of their milk samples graded as good and excellent, while the remaining milk samples were graded as fair milk. Interestingly none of the milk samples collected from all the 10 towns and locations were graded ‘poor. The research concludes based on the findings that, all the milk samples analyzed would not pose any health threat to the consumers, as the bacterial content are not significantly high to cause diseases. It is therefore recommended that periodic milk tests should be done to improve the quality and check the viability of milk sold to consumers.