The biopreservative efficiencies of ten major edible and industrial vegetable oils on stored tomato paste were compared in this study. These oils were groundnut oil, cotton seed oil, soybean oil, olive oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, sesame seed oil, coconut oil, castor oil and chilli oil, castor oil was the only industrial oil. 2.5mls of each of these oils were used to preserve 3mls of the canned tomato paste, incubated at room temperature and observed for over two and half weeks. The results showed that coconut oil, chilli oil, castor oil, sesame seed oil and palm oil were more efficient in preserving stored tomato paste. The groundnut oil, soyabean oil and cottonseed oil were less efficient. The olive oil and palm kernel oil were not good preservatives as microbial growths were observed after 168hrs (1week) of incubative preservation. The result of this study showed that coconut oil, chilli oil, castor oil, sesame seed oil and palm oil were clearly superior within the trial duration. Organisms found associated with the spoilage of the industrial tomato paste included fungi such as Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus, A. niger and Fusarium spp and bacteria such as Bacillus coagulans, B. stearothermophilus and Proteus spp.
