Effect of warm-smoking on total microbial count of meat products
Subject Areas : Veterinary Clinical Pathologyافشین Javadi 1 , حمید Mirzaii 2 , پیام Pashak 3
1 - Department of Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
2 - Department of Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
3 - Graduate of Veterinary Medicine, Islamic Azad University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
Keywords: Frankfurters, warm smoking, total count,
Abstract :
The frankfurters are amongst the most famous and popular sausages in the world and beef and poultry meat are used in Iran for their preparation. The techniques of warm smoking at 42°c for two hours and then hot smoking together with steam cooking at 8°c for one hour are utilized in proportion of this product. In spite of its carcinogenic properties, smoke is used to create color, flavor and odor and to improve the preservative qualities of sausages. In this study, 14 sausage samples were taken from each of the stages of frankfurter production line including pre-smoking, post- warm smoking and post-hot smoking, their total microbial counts (aerobic mesophiles) determined and the means of the three stages compared using the ANOVA statistical test. The results indicated that the total microbial count increased significantly (P<0.05) during warm smoking compared to the pre-smoking stage and a subsequent significant decrease (P<0.05) was observed during the hot smoking stage but there was no significant difference after the hot smoking stage in comparison to the pre smoking stage. Although there are antimicrobial compounds in smoke, it seems that these compounds are not absorbed by the product during warm smoking at 42°c which is the optimum temperature for microbial growth and therefore the total microbial count increases during this stage but hot smoking at 80°c decreases the total microbial count.