Sausage initiation

The hygienic quality of the raw material used for the manufacture of sausage is an important factor relating to the production of biogenic amines. High-quality meats with low initial bacterial counts help keep the biogenic amines well below the toxic level (Shalaby 1995 Bover-Cid et al., 2000) and should be used with the addition of a non-amine-producing starter culture. 

Little or no loss of antimicrobial activity was further observed after fermentation of raw sausages containing streptomycin (6). However, smoking/scalding processes could cause a 32-45% reduction of the streptomycin activity (7). When semi- or fully preserved sausages were heated at 90-95 C for 1 h, the microbiological activity of the contained streptomycin exhibited a 50% reduction of the initial dose (8) however, some of the initial activity could be demonstrated in the juices exuded from the heated sausages even when the temperature was raised to 120-125 C. 

Catalases are mainly present in microorganisms such as Kocuria and Staphylococcus and are responsible for peroxide reduction. This reaction contributes to eolor and flavor stabilization. Nitrate reductase, also present in those microorganisms, is a very important enzyme for the reduction of nitrate to nitrite in slow ripened sausages where there is initial addition of nitrate. Recently, two strains of Lactobacillus fermentum have proved to be able to generate nitric oxide and give an acceptable color in sausages without nitrate/nitrite. This may be important in the case of cured meats with no addition of either nitrate or nitrite (Moller et al. 2003). 

In the investigations made with sausages, hams andfruit a decrease of the initial pesticide contamination by 30-80% was achieved. In processing of vegetable oils and margarines no residues of pesticides have been found. 

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