Physicochemical, microbiological and sensory changes during storage in “Paio do Alentejo”, a traditional Portuguese Iberian sausage

Abstract

The present work studied the characteristics of "Paio do Alentejo", a traditional Iberian dry cured sausage, produced in Alentejo region, in two selected industrial plants, that use different methods; one of them used smoking and the other one did not use it. Both factories did not use starter cultures. In this research work the evolution of that product during its storage at 25.°C, vacuum and modified atmosphere packaged was studied. Changes on the main physicochemical parameters (pH, aw, chlorides, TVBN, Titratable acidity, L*, a*, b*), microbiological counts (mesophilic aerobic bacteria, psycho-tropic, moulds, yeasts, Lactobacillus spp., lactic acid bacteria, Micrococcaceae,Enterobacteriaceae, and Enterococci) and sensory evaluation (colour intensity, off colour, aroma intensity, off aroma, taste intensity, off taste, salt content and global evaluation) were studied in the final product and also at 3, 6 and 9 months of storage. A multifactor ANOVA/MANOVA was made, considering "factory", "storage package" and "storage time" factors and their interaction. This research work evidences the importance of smoking in order to maintain physicochemical, microbiological and sensory characteristics of a high quality dry cured sausage from the Alentejano pig breed, using vacuum packaging and modified atmosphere packaging, at 25° C, without energy consumption, during 9 month, at least.