Acta Vet. Brno 2024, 93: 115-121
The shelf life of cooked sausages with reduced salt content
The aim of this study was to compare the microbiological quality of cooked sausages produced with a traditional salt content (2.1%) and reformulated batches with a salt content reduced to 1.7%. The reformulation was tested on two types of comminuted meat products – Špekáčky sausage with a diameter of up to 46 mm or Bologna-type sausages in diameter of 85 mm (Gothaj sausage) or 75 mm (Junior sausage). The total viable count (TVC) increased only slightly during the four-week storage (4 ± 1 °C) of all batches of Špekáčky sausage. Comparing batches 1.7 and 2.1, there is an evident difference in the number of CFU/g, with samples of Špekáčky 1.7 showing numbers of bacteria higher by approximately 1 logarithmic order throughout practically the entire storage period (P = 0.001). The population of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) remained well beneath a value of 5.0 log CFU/g even at the end of the experiment. For Bologna-type sausages, the TVC was either beneath the limit of detection or at its boundary in all samples. LAB were not detected during storage of Bologna-type sausages. The results confirmed that the proportion of salt in cooked sausages can be reduced to 1.7% without negatively affecting the shelf life or safety of the final products.
Funding
This article was produced with the support of the project QK1910100 ‘The Effect of Reformulation on the Shelf Life and Physicochemical Properties of Food Products within the Applied Research Programme of the Ministry of Agriculture for the period 2017–2025 – ZEMĚ’. CIISB, Instruct-CZ Centre of Instruct-ERIC EU consortium, funded by MEYS CR infrastructure project LM2023042 and European Regional Development Fund-Project ‘UP CIISB’ (No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/18_046/0015974), is gratefully acknowledged for the financial support of the measurements at the CEITEC Proteomics Core Facility.
