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Fermented milk from Uganda

Bongobongo

Bongo is a thick Ugandan fermented milk drink. Processors in Lyantonde boil cow milk briefly, let it cool and leave it covered for about a day, then pour off the whey and stir the curd smooth. It is sold in jerrycans, sometimes sweetened and flavoured.

Fully documentedFermented milk24 h

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedProcessors in the Lyantonde study made 5 to 20 L of bongo a day; no recipe gives amounts.
Cow milkChecked for smell and added water, sieved, then boiled[mukisa2020]
Sugar and artificial flavouringsOptional, added by some processors after fermenting[mukisa2020]
Starterspontaneous (after boiling); the fermentation vessels are an important source of inoculum

Total time across the recorded steps: 24 h

Start
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What changes: The sieved milk is boiled for a few minutes in a saucepan

Step 1 of 4
Sieve and boil the milk
Time
2–3 min
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts

Output: boiled milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

boiling kills most raw-milk bacteria

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

At a glance

Bongo is a thick Ugandan fermented milk drink. Processors in Lyantonde boil cow milk briefly, let it cool and leave it covered for about a day, then pour off the whey and stir the curd smooth. It is sold in jerrycans, sometimes sweetened and flavoured. Made in 4 steps over 24 h. The longest step, cool and leave to ferment, takes 24 h (Mukisa I.M 2020) and runs at 25–28 °C (Mukisa I.M 2020). Lactic acid bacteria (4.9–7.8 log CFU/mL) and yeasts (2.7–6.1 log CFU/mL), the dominant groups does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step24 hReported[mukisa2020]Cool and leave to ferment
Temperature25–28 °CReported[mukisa2020]Cool and leave to ferment
AciditypH 4.1Measured[mukisa2020]Pack and store

What makes this one different

Bongo is a Ugandan market product made at small scale; all the commercial processors in the Lyantonde study boiled the milk first, which the authors link to awareness of brucellosis. The authors add that the fermentation vessels (saucepans, jerrycans and gourds) are an important source of inoculum.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Raw-milk bongoUnboiled milk, still common in rural areas.

Safety

Over 93.3 % of 30 Lyantonde samples carried potentially pathogenic microbes, and about 40 % had pH at or above 4.0, the limit used as a reference. Fermentation vessels, reused jerrycans and poor hygiene were the likely sources. Uganda had no safety standard for traditional fermented milks at the time. A later study of three Enterococcus faecium isolates from Bongo found them resistant to all 17 antibiotics tested and carrying resistance and virulence-associated genes, which the authors call a possible food-safety concern that needs wider surveillance (Byakika and Mukisa 2026).

Hazards the sources name: Escherichia coli, detected in all three sampling rounds of Bongo from small-scale processors in Mbarara (mean 3.73 log CFU/mL in the first round, 1.06 and 0.09 in the next two); Salmonella was not detected; Enterobacteriaceae, coliforms, sulphite-reducing clostridia, Enterococcus and Staphylococcus (over 93.3 % of 30 samples carried potential pathogens).

History and sources

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

Bongo is a popular drink in western and central Uganda. It comes from the rural cattle-keeping regions and is gaining popularity across the country, which has led to unregulated commercial production (Mukisa et al. 2020). A Mbarara study calls it a traditional fermented milk, lighter in texture and acidity than yoghurt, known as amakamo among the Banyankore (Mugabe et al. 2026). The Lyantonde processors had 4 to 30 years of experience and learnt the practice from their forefathers. An earlier study reported traditional unpasteurised milk; in March and April 2019 all the commercial processors in Lyantonde used boiled milk.

  1. [mukisa2020] Mukisa I.M., Ssendagala G.W., Byakika S. 2020, Microbiological safety and physicochemical composition of Bongo, a traditional fermented milk product from Lyantonde district, Uganda, Scientific African 10:e00583 (read in the open-access copy in the NRU repository)paper
  2. [mugabe2026] Mugabe A., Mugampoza E., Wacoo P.A. 2026, Microbiological and chemical quality of raw milk, Bongo and yoghurt from diverse sources in Mbarara District, Uganda, Cogent Food & Agriculture 12(1), doi:10.1080/23311932.2026.2660380 (read in the NRU repository copy)paper
  3. [byakika2026] Byakika S., Mukisa I.M. 2026, Antimicrobial resistance and virulence of Enterococcus faecium isolates from a traditionally fermented dairy beverage from Uganda, BMC Microbiology 26:236, doi:10.1186/s12866-026-04796-0 (PMC open-access copy)paper