Acta Vet. Brno 2026, 95: 99-106
Does the application of a protective microbial culture influence the quality of cooked fish sausages?
In this study, meat from freshly slaughtered African sharptooth catfish (Clarias gariepinus) was used to assess whether the technological application of a protective microbial culture (PMC) could influence the quality and hygienic evaluation of a model fish meat product. The fillets were processed into cooked fish sausages prepared either from freshly killed fish (F – fresh meat) or from meat stored for 3 days at 2 °C (S – stored meat). Each of these two variants was further divided into subgroups according to the application of a commercially available protective culture (Pediococcus acidilactici, P) or without it (control, C), resulting in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Significant differences (P < 0.05) were observed only in texture indicators of sausages prepared from stored fish meat. However, the application of PMC had no significant effect (P > 0.05) on the microbiological or overall quality indicators of fish meat and cooked sausages.
Keywords
Food safety, microorganism, sensory analysis, Clarias gariepinus, African sharptooth catfish.
Funding
This research was supported by the project QK23020047 ‘Verifying the possibilities of proving the use of protective cultures in the production of food of animal origin’, funded under the applied research programme of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic for the period 2017–2025 (ZEMĚ, sub-programme 2 – Support for State Policy in the Agrarian Sector). The authors gratefully acknowledge the technical assistance of the staff of the Food Technology Pilot Plant (CZ 22067) and the Department of Zoology, Fisheries, Hydrobiology and Apiculture at Mendel University in Brno.
