Detection and Enumeration of Moulds on Some Legumes and a Cereal Grain from Two Local Markets and Two Shopping Malls in the Accra Metropolis

This study detected and enumerated moulds associated with seeds and cereal grains under different packaging systems displayed for sale at two different purchasing sites; open market and supermarket. Two popular open markets and supermarkets were used for the investigation. The moulds were isolated on two mycological media, Malt Extract Agar (Oxoid CM545) and Dichloran Rose Bengal Chloramphenicol Agar (CM 041) using decimal Serial Dilution and Pour Plate methods. Four fungal genera, Aspergilus, Fusarium, Penicilium and Mucor were isolated on maize, cowpea, peanuts and bambara beans purchased from the two sampling points. Aspergilus sp predominated with 31.9% isolation followed by Fusarium verticillioide (= Fusarium moniliforme) with 20.1%, Penicilium digitatum, 8.1% and Mucor spp 0.2% isolation on the samples from the open markets. A similar trend was observed on the samples from the supermarkets with much lower percentage occurrence; Aspergillus sp. 12.2%, Fusarium sp. followed with 3.3%, and Penicilium sp. with 0.6% isolation. Mucor genus, however, was isolated only on bambara beans from one of the open markets. Five Aspergilus species namely; A. flavus ˃ A. niger ˃ A. fumigatus ˃A. ochraceus ˃ A. sulphureus in decreasing number of magnitude were isolated from the samples from the open markets. The samples from the supermarkkets also registered five Aspergillus sp. in this order of decreasing magnitude; A. flavus˃ A. niger =A. fumigatus ˃ A. sulphureus˃ A. ochraceus. Penicillium digitatum and Fusarium verticillioide(=Fusarium moniliforme) were also isolated on the seed/grain from both open markets and the supermarkets. Most of the species isolated were mycotoxins producing moulds.