Choose an option to locate/access this article:
Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution
Check access
Highlights
- •
- EOs had antibacterial activity in dry cured sausages with sensory acceptance.
- •
- EOs at 0.005% and 0.05% presented antibacterial activity.
- •
- Antibacterial activity of EOs is influenced by drying process.
- •
- Thyme, oregano and rosemary EOs displayed the better inhibitory activity.
- •
- S. aureus were the most resistant to the EOs action.
Abstract
Dry cured sausages such as Portuguese chouriço de vinho
are made generally with roughly minced pork and fat and seasoned with a
large variety of herbs and spices. It is a particular sausage because
meat is marinated in wine with other seasonings during 24–48 h before
stuffing. Nowadays, health concerns of consumers have left food
processors with less flexibility to choose preservative substances and
methods. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess the
antimicrobial effect of essential oils (EOs) of herbs and spices
traditionally used in seasoning dry cured sausage chouriço against Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus.
First, antibacterial activity of 14 EOs was screened by disk diffusion
assay. Those EOs that displayed antimicrobial activity were further
characterized by GC–MS and added as natural antimicrobial substances to
the manufacture of chouriço at two concentrations (0.005% and 0.05%).
Samples were analyzed 24 h after the preparation of the batter and after
3, 8, 15 and 21 days.
After 15 days of drying, Salmonella spp. and L. monocytogenes counts decreased by ca. 2 log cfu/g in all samples. At 3 days, Salmonella spp. was already undetectable in chouriço made with 0.05% of garlic and oregano EOs. Both Salmonella spp. and L. monocytogenes were not detected after 8 and 15 days of drying respectively. S. aureus
was still presented after 21 days of drying although its counts were
not high enough to a potential enterotoxins presence. Utilization of EOs
in manufacture of dry cured sausage resulted in an interesting strategy
to improve its safety against Salmonella spp, L. monocytogenes and S. aureus,
but with sensory limitations, that does not allow its use in high
concentrations, that are those more interesting for pathogen inhibition.
However,
results with good potential to be applied by the industry were found,
once the level of addition of 0.005% contributed for significant
reductions on the pathogen's counts and for a shorter period to achieve
the not detectable level, allowing the industry to shorten the drying
period and, thereafter increasing yield production.
Keywords
- Dry cured sausage;
- Essential oils;
- Foodborne pathogens;
- Consumer acceptance;
- Chouriço de vinho
Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
