18D-16

R. Soto del Castillo, Dept. de Ingeniería Química y Alimentos, Univ. de las Américas, Puebla, Sta. Catarina Martir, Cholula, Puebla, 72820, Mexico, F. SAN MARTIN, Dept. de Ingeniería Química y Alimentos, Univ. de las Américas, Puebla, Sta. Catarina Martir, Cholula, Puebla, 72820, Mexico, E. Palou, Center for Engineering Education, Univ. de las Americas, Puebla, Cholula, Puebla, 72820, Mexico, and A. Lopez-Malo, Dept. de Ingeniería Química y Alimentos, Univ. de las Américas-Puebla, Santa Catarina Mártir, Cholula, Puebla, 72820, Mexico.

Probiotic lactic acid bacteria are widely used in fermented foods, especially dairy products. For meat products, sausages processed by fermentation without heating can also be vehicles for probiotic bacteria.

The objective of this work was to examine the viability of lactic acid bacteria (starter and probiotic culture) during fermentation of a dry sausage.

Dry sausage was manufactured according to the following formulation: pork 68.7%, pork fat 29.4%, salt 1.0%, sucrose 0.5%, curing salt 0.3%, dry garlic 0.2%, sodium ascorbate 0.05%, black pepper 0.01%, and bacterial cultures. Three different cultures were inoculated (10⁵ ufc/g), Lactobacillus plantarum, L. acidophilus or a mixture of both. The raw formulation was stuffed into 45 mm artificial casing and fermented 10 h at 32°C followed by a 10 d at 7°C and 40% RH period. Periodically pH, acidity, and viable organisms were determined, and an acceptability test after 15 d of refrigerated storage was conducted.

At 10 days of fermentation pH values (5.2-5.1) of the sausages were not significantly different (p<0.05). Acidity was slightly higher (2.47%) in the sausage fermented with the bacterial mixture than in the product fermented with L. plantarum (2.39%) or L. acidophilus (2.25%). The viability evaluation demonstrated that both organisms increased in number during fermentation and maintained populations higher than 10⁸ ufc/g, especially in the sausage fermented with the bacterial mixture. Sensory results showed that the three sausages were not significantly different (p<0.05), and were well accepted with mean scores higher than 7.

Meats provide alternative environments for probiotic bacteria promoting their addition on dry sausage formulation.

Session 18D, Food Microbiology: General
2:00 PM - 5:30 PM, Sunday PM Room Hall I-2

2005 IFT Annual Meeting, July 15-20 - New Orleans, Louisiana