Resumen de Evaluación de la higiene e inocuidad de un embutido fermentado portugués (linguiça) a lo largo de su procesamiento
Ursula Gonzales Barrón, A.P. Pereira, A. Gomes, F.F. Silva, P. Rodrigues, C. Fernandes, L. Estevinho, V. Cadeves, Carlos T. S. Dias
Linguiça is a Portuguese dry-fermented sausage, which has been found to harbour food-borne pathogens in the past. Hence, the objective of this study was to investigate the changes in the levels of total viable counts (TVC), Enterobacteriaceae, L. monocytogenes and S. aureus at the key production stages of linguiça. Overall, TVC counts did not change considerably from raw meat to stuffing (5.5 ± 5.9 log CFU/g), yet it increased significantly up to the end of drying (7.83 log CFU/g). Unlike the Enterobacteriaceae counts, which decreased (p<0.01) from batter before maceration (3.23 log CFU/g) to the end of drying (1.56 log CFU), S. aureus increased significantly between these two processing stages (2.58 log CFU/g in the finished product). L. monocytogenes was detected in the products of one of the factories although their counts decreased after batter maceration. The presence of these two pathogens should also prompt industries to reinforce good hygiene practices in the processing of traditional sausages.
