Abstract
Ersho is a clear, yellow liquid that accumulates on the surface of fermenting teff-flour batter and is collected to serve as an inoculum for the next fermentation. The pH of ersho samples was about 3.5 and titratable acidity ranged between 3.1% and 5.7%. The mean aerobic mesophilic counts from four households varied between 6.9×106 and 1.3×108 c.f.u./ml and the aerobic bacterial flora consisted of Bacillus spp. Mean yeast counts ranged between 5.2×105 and 1.8×106 c.f.u./ml and comprised, in order of abundance, Candida milleri, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa, Kluyveromyces marxianus, Pichia naganishii and Debaromyces hansenii. Candida milleri was the most dominant isolate in all samples. About 90% of the teff flour samples had aerobic mesophilic counts ≥105 c.f.u./g and Gram-positive bacteria constituted about 71% of the total isolates. About 80% of samples had Enterobacteriaceae counts of 104 c.f.u./g.
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M. Ashenafi is with the Department of Basic Sciences, Awassa College of Agriculture, Addis Ababa University, PO Box 5, Awassa, Sidamo, Ethiopia.
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Ashenafi, M. Microbial flora and some chemical properties of ersho, a starter for teff (Eragrostis tef) fermentation. World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology 10, 69–73 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00357567
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00357567