Kinetics of traditional Turkish sausage quality aspects during fermentation

Changes in chemical (pH, moisture, salt, ash, fat, protein, free fatty acids (FFA), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and residual nitrite contents), colour (Hunter L*, a* and b*, hue angle, chroma (saturation index), browning index (BI) and total colour difference (ΔE)) and microbiological (total mesophilic aerobic bacterial (TMAB), lactic acid bacteria (LAB), total Enterobacteriaceae (TE) and Staphylococcus and Micrococcus (SM)) quality characteristics of traditional fermented sausage “sucuk” during fermentation were investigated and kinetic modeling of these parameters were performed, in this study. The fermentation of the sucuk lasted 9 days. Analysis of the quality parameters was run on the beginning of the fermentation and on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 9th days of the fermentation process. Changes in the chemical and colour parameters were represented by zero, first and second order kinetic models. Microbial increments were represented by linear (first order kinetic) models and reductions were represented by both linear and Weibull distribution models.