Effect of commercial starter cultures on physicochemical characteristics, microbial counts and free fatty acid composition of dry-cured foal sausage

The need for high-quality safe products has resulted in the use of starter cultures for the production of dry-cured sausages. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of commercial starter cultures on the physicochemical properties, microbiological counts and free fatty acid composition during the ripening of dry fermented foal sausages. Microbial counts revealed that, although initial counts of Enterobacteriaceae were similar in the four batches (3.48 log CFU/g), this microbial group exhibited a strong decrease during the ripening of inoculated sausages, and reached values below 1 log CFU/g in the final product, whereas the counts of Enterobacteriaceae in the control sausages were 2.41 log CFU/g at the end of the ripening. In general, physicochemical parameters were not affected by the use of starter cultures, but by the ripening time, with the exception of pH values, since the inoculation of starter cultures resulted in a stronger acidification during the first two weeks of production, with pH values below 5 in inoculated batches. Finally, statistical analysis revealed that free fatty acid (FFA) profile was not significantly affected by starter cultures and it might therefore be considered that the major release of FFA was probably due to endogenous lipases. In conclusion, it seems that the inclusion of starter cultures contributes to improve the hygienic quality of foal sausages without significant effect on lipolysis, texture and appearance.