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Fermentation Atlas

Cereals and bread from West Africa

Ogi (akamu, eko, agidi)ògì

Maize, sorghum or millet grains are steeped for one to three days, wet-milled and sieved to remove bran, hulls and germ. The starch milk settles and sours for two to three days into a white sour cake, which is cooked into a thin porridge (pap) or a firm gel (eko, agidi). Made in 5 steps over 3 days – 6 days. The longest step, steep the whole grain, takes 24 h – 3 days (Haard N.F 1999) and runs at 25–29 °C (Omemu A.M 2018). Lactiplantibacillus plantarum, the main lactic acid producer and Yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida mycoderma, which add flavour; Rhodotorula do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 h – 3 daysReported[fao1999][omemu2018]Steep the whole grain
Temperature25–29 °CMeasured[omemu2018]Steep the whole grain
AciditypH 5.8 → 3.74Measured[omemu2018]Settle and sour

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceLaboratory batch of 1000 g maize steeped in water at 1:2 (w/v), from a 2018 Nigerian study that followed the traditional method. Households and micro-enterprises use no fixed amounts.
1000 gWhite maize grains · Sorghum or millet are also used[omemu2018][fao1999]
1:2 (w/v)Water for steeping · Grain to water; the steep water is discarded[omemu2018]
Water for wet-milling and sieving[omemu2018]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 3 days – 6 days

Start
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Close-up: water moving into a grain25–29 °CpH 6.5 → 5.34

What changes: Whole maize steeps in water and starts to sour

Step 1 of 5
Steep the whole grain
Time
24 h – 3 days
Reported
Temperature
25–29 °C
Measured
Salt
None given
Acidity
pH 6.5 → 5.34
Measured
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts

Output: softened, slightly sour grain; the steep water is thrown away.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Ogi is a wet-sieved starch ferment. Unlike kenkey or mawè, which ferment the whole milled dough, ogi throws away the bran, hulls and germ and sours only the settled starch, which makes it very white and fine but loses protein.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Cold steepingGrain steeped in cold water for 3 days, with the water changed every day.
  • Fon method (Benin)Maize steeped in water at 85 °C for 24 h.
  • Goun method (Benin)Grain boiled about 10 min, then steeped 12–48 h at ambient temperature. It gives a very white, fine slurry and about 40 % protein loss.
  • Soy-ogiOgi enriched with 10 % soya flour, developed at FIIRO, Lagos.
  • DogikAn ogi product developed in Nigeria for its reported ability to help control diarrhoea in infants (Olukoya et al. 1994).

Safety

The sour pH keeps Enterobacteriaceae out of well-fermented ogi; none were found in Beninese commercial ogi at pH 3.3–3.7. Raw ogi can still carry a high microbial load, so it is boiled or mixed with boiling water before it is eaten, especially as a weaning food.

Hazards the sources name: Klebsiella oxytoca and Aspergillus flavus, isolated during maize–pigeon pea ogi fermentation.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Akinrele described ogi's microbes in 1970 and Odunfa showed in 1985 that L. plantarum leads the souring. In Benin, ogi is made mostly by micro-enterprises and eaten as agidi, koko porridge or akpan.

  1. [fao1999] Haard N.F., Odunfa S.A., Lee C.-H., Quintero-Ramírez R., Lorence-Quiñones A., Wacher-Radarte C. 1999, Fermented cereals. A global perspective, FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin 138, ch. 2gov
  2. [omemu2018] Omemu A.M., Okafor U.I., Obadina A.O., Bankole M.O., Adeyeye S.A.O. 2018, Microbiological assessment of maize ogi cofermented with pigeon pea, Food Science & Nutrition 6(5):1238–1253, doi:10.1002/fsn3.651paper
  3. [nago1998] Nago M.C., Hounhouigan J.D., Akissoe N., Zanou E., Mestres C. 1998, Characterization of the Beninese traditional ogi, a fermented maize slurry, physicochemical and microbiological aspects, International Journal of Food Science and Technology 33:307–315paper