Potential use of lactic acid bacteria with bacteriocin-like activity against Staphylococcus aureus as dual starter cultures in Thai fermented sausage “Sai Krok Prew”

Three strains of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), Pediococcus acidilactici (CP7-3) and Lactobacillus plantarum (CP1-15 and CP2-11) isolated from Thai fermented sausage “Sai-Krok-Prew” were tested for their bacteriocin-like activity against foodborne pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus. The strains CP7-3 and CP1-15 showed the inhibitory activity against the test organism, while CP2-11 had no inhibition. The three LAB strains were further investigated for use as single and dual starter culture in Sai-Krok-Prew. With a single inoculum of either CP2-11 or CP1-15, only the number of total lactic acid bacteria in the sausage with CP 2-11 was higher than that in the other samples. However, the colony count of fungi, Escherichia coli and S. aureus were not significantly different. With the dual starters of CP7-3 and CP2-11 and of CP7-3 and CP1-15, the numbers of S. aureus reduced almost 1 log CFU/g. Furthermore, the counts of Salmonella in both inoculated sausages were reduced to an undetectable level. The reduction was 3 log CFU/g, which was significantly different from that in the control (P ≤ 0.05). Sensory assessment indicated that most panelists gave higher scores for characteristic, taste, texture and overall likeness on the sausage with the dual starter culture CP7-3 and CP1-15 than the uninoculated sausage. Therefore, uses of the mixed cultures of CP1-15 and CP7-3 may be beneficial to both safety and characteristics of Sai Krok Prew.