Microbiological quality and [physicochemical] parameters of cold-smoked sausages during ripening
2011
Silins, I., Food and Veterinary Service, Jelgava (Latvia). Dienvidzemgale Branch | Liepins, E., Latvia Univ. of Agriculture, Jelgava (Latvia)
Many recent studies in food safety have investigated non-thermal processing of ready-to-eat food products, but there is little information about the survival of food pathogens in different ripening stages of cold smoked sausages. Therefore, the microbiological quality (total aerobic count – TAC, Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, Salmonella spp., and Listeria spp.), water activity (aw), and pH were determined in cold-smoked sausages during the ripening time from days 0 to 21. The temperature in smoke camera was 28 deg C for the first 3 days of maturation and 15±1 deg C during days 4 to 21. As a result the TAC of starter culture bacteria increased from 5.72 lg cfu gE-1 at the beginning to a maximum of 9.41 lg cfu gE-1. The count of S. aureus increased from 1.38 to 2.68 lg cfu gE-1 and E. coli decreased from 2.47 to 0.85 lg cfu gE-1. Salmonella spp. was not detected at any time. Listeria monocytogenes was found in one of 5 sausage series, but measured only during the first 5 days when the count decreased from 3.41 to 2.08 lg cfu gE-1. The mean value of pH decreased from 5.80 to 4.65 in the first 5 days and stabilized. Water activity (aw) decreased slowly and generally correlated with air humidity in the ripening camera and the mean value changed from 0.963 to 0.817 aw. A significantly different correlation between the bacterial count and aw values was found. The results indicate that the microbiological safety of cold-smoked sausages depend on the initial contamination level with food pathogens. The analysis was done at the Faculty of Veterinary medicine of the Agricultural University of Latvia and at the sausage manufacturer’s laboratory.
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