Abstract:
Kocho is a starchy fermented food obtained from scraping of pseudo stem and grated
corm of enset plant (Enset Ventricosum). The Objective of this study is to determine the
effect fermentation temperature and time on quality of kocho. Association of Official
Analytical Chemists (AOAC) was used to determine proximate analysis, Classical plate
counts was used to determine microbial analysis and hedonics scale was used to
determine sensory analysis. The data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA)
using Minitab software version 19, while, mean separation was performed by Tukey
method and considered significant difference at 95% confidence interval. Both
fermentation temperature and time significantly affect (p<0.05) the physicochemical,
microbial and sensory properties of kocho samples. The physicochemical properties such
as; pH, fiber content and moisture content were decreased as fermentation temperature
and time increased while, TA and protein content were increased as fermentation
temperature and time increased. The microbial count such as; total mesophilic bacteria
and yeast and mold were increased initially and later decreased however, the lactic acid
bacteria count were increased as fermentation temperature and time increased. As
fermentation temperature and time increased all sensory attributes of kocho such as;
color odor, taste, appearance and overall acceptability accepted by consumer. The
preferred physicochemical, microbial and sensory quality of kocho was obtained using
2% of fermented kocho as starter culture at 32
0
C fermented for12 days. Several
microbes were present on raw product before fermentation therefore processing under
controlled condition should be applied.