The effect of the addition of a commercial bioprotector in characteristics of "alheira" made from Alentejano pig meat

Abstract

“Alheira” is a traditional fermented sausage usually produced from poultry meat. A new product was developed at a Portuguese traditional meat plant using Alentejano pig breed meat [1]. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of a commercial bioprotector in the physicochemical, microbiological and instrumental texture parameters, as well as in the sensorial attributes of the “alheiras”. Two different treatments were compared, namely control and bioprotector and three end product “alheiras” with three days were used per treatment. One-Way ANOVA was used for statistical analyses. The pH of the “alheiras” with bioprotector (4.29) was lower than the pH of the control treatment (4.48). However, no significant differences were observed between control and bioprotector regarding water activity (aw). The “alheiras” microbiological flora showed no significant differences regarding total mesophiles, total anaerobes, lactic acid bacteria, enterobacteria, Escherichia coli and Listeria spp. The counts of psychrophiles (2×107 cfu/g) and psychrophilic anaerobes (1.7×107 cfu/g) were higher in the control treatment, whereas more yeasts and moulds (7×104 cfu/g) are present in the “alheiras” with bioprotector. No contamination with Salmonella sp. was detected, but some samples showed a minor contamination with Listeria monocytogenes. Further studies are in course to reduce microbial contamination, particularly to eradicate Listeria monocytogenes [2]. Texture Profile Analysis (TPA) results revealed that the adhesiveness of the bioprotector “alheiras” (-0.386 N s) is lower than in the control (-0.2 N s). However, no significant differences were observed for other instrumental texture parameters. Regarding sensorial analysis, although no differences were observed between control and bioprotector “alheiras”, panellists noticed some off tastes in the bioprotector treatment. Considering the results of the end product at three days shelf life, no advantage was seen in the bioprotector “alheiras”. These have lower pH, which could justify the off tastes noticed by some panellists and their higher counts of yeasts and moulds.

Acknowledgements This work was supported by national funds through project PRODER (QREN/PRODER/Medida 4.1) and funded by FEDER Funds through the COMPETE and National Funds through FCT under the Strategic Project PEst-C/AGR/UI0115/2011. The authors thank PALADARES ALENTEJANOS, Lda. for their collaboration and A. Oliveira and G. Pias for their technical assistance.

References: 1-Elias, M. et al. (2013) “Portuguese traditional sausage, “alheira”, made with different meat: sensory evaluation and texture.” ICoMST 2013 E-Book of Proceedings, 59th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology, Izmir, Turkey, 18-23 August 2013. 2-Felício et al. (2011) “Thermal inactivation of Listeria monocytogenes from alheiras, traditional portuguese sausage during cooking.” Food Control 22, 1960-1964.