Evaluation of Microbiological Quality of the Date Fruit Product "Btana" Produced in Adrar South Algeria

Abstract

Dates, the fruits of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) are a vital element of the daily diet in the Arabian world. Dates over production needs to be transformed into local t raditional products like Our study aimed to describe the dynamic changes of microbial and chemical parameters (pH, water content) of dates during transformation and storage period. Samples were collected fro m different processing and storage periods fro m 4 villages in Adrar province located at the south of Algeria. M icrobial analysis showed that Lamaize raw dates recorded a high number of APc count (3.5 x 10 2 ufc/g). In addition Abani samples included a level of faecal colifo rms (40 ufc/g) wh ich were absent in other samples. API 20 E assay confirm the presence of Klebsiella (K. terrigena, K. pneumonia and K. oxytoca) and Yersinia enterocolica. At the end of the storage period, an impo rtant decrease in microbial population was recorded. The h ighest reduction of APc was observed in Mraguen sample (fro m 3,5x10 6 to 5x10 2 ufc/g ) during four weeks of storage. Fungal population significantly d iminished at the fourth week of storage. Both pathogens and bacterial indicators detected on raw dates (S. aureus, faecal coliforms) were completely absent in the stored Btana.