A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Life Sciences of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of
Science and Technology
Fermented cereal-based probiotic beverages are rare and have rarely been produced in
Tanzania. Though the beverages are novel, the potentiality of such beverages has for some
decades been exhibited through local fermented cereal-based beverages. In recent years there
has been a paradigm shift towards non-diary probiotic products because of the negative health
effects milk and dairy products have on the multitude of people around the world. A
quantitative study employing purposeful sampling was carried out in three regions of Mbeya,
Morogoro and Kilimanjaro whereby in each of the regions; quadruplicate samples of either of
the traditional cereal-based beverages locally known as Kindi, Kimpumu, Togwa or Mbege
were collected from a target village and stored at 4 °C in the laboratory. Identification of
probiotic microbes in the local beverages was done and probiotic Kindi, Kimpumu, Mbege and
Togwa were developed using pure cultures of the identified probiotic bacteria. Probiotic
cultures used were Lactobacillus brevis for Togwa, Lactobacillus plantarum for Kimpumu and
Mbege and Pediococcus pentosaceus for Kindi. After 24-48 h of controlled fermentation at 37
°C; results showed that the prepared cereal-based beverages were probiotic with mean viable
cell counts of 1 x 1011 cfu/mL and mean pH 4.77. During storage the probiotic cereal beverages
remained stable for five days at 25 °C and 28 days (4 weeks) at 4 °C with viable cell count of
2.0 x 1011 cfu/mL and pH 3.83 at 25 °C and viable cell count of 2.0 x 1011 cfu/mL and pH 4.08
at 4 °C, respectively. There was no growth of pathogens in the beverages. The four cereal based probiotic beverages were equally accepted by consumers through a sensorial evaluation.
This study shows that controlled fermentation of cereals using carefully selected probiotic
bacteria results in probiotic cereal based-beverages with good quality attributes and safety and
further advance the knowledge on fermented cereal substrates as nutrient-rich and promising
delivery vehicles for probiotics by sustaining the growth of a large population of lactic acid
bacteria.