Semidry and dry fermented sausages

Abstract

Fermentation and drying can be considered to be the oldest way to preserve raw materials. Although the historical origin of fermented meat products remains unknown, fragmentary bibliographical research has traced it back more than 2500 years in China. Many of these products have been known in Europe since the thirteenth through the fourteenth centuries, after being introduced by Marco Polo. Preservative and palatability effects must have been experienced after mixing comminuted fresh meat with salt contaminated with nitrate, spices, or herbs; stuffing it into animal intestines; and then drying it. Early humans were certainly aware of the preservative value of salt and drying, and therefore, over the centuries, humans were able to develop cured products. Proof of sausage production was fi rst documented in ancient Greece, where it may have been encouraged by the existing climate conditions (Liepe 1983 ). The Romans inherited this tradition, and from then on, fermented sausages spread to central, eastern, and northern European countries, as well as to America and Australia where fermented sausages were recognized as the heritage of European immigrants (Demeyer 2004 ; Fadda and Vignolo 2007 ). Despite the widespread production of fermented sausages, Europe is still the major producer and consumer of these meat products, production and per capita consumption fi gures being highest in Germany, Italy, Spain, and France (L ü cke 1998 ; FICT 2002 ; Di Cagno et al. 2008 ). Production in the New World is much lower: in the United States, the annual production of dried fermented sausages is probably less than 5% of the total sausage production (Maddock 2007 ). The remarkable technological advances and signifi cant improvements in meat hygiene that occurred about 50 years ago have been capitalized on for the development of a range of fermented meat products in which differences among countries and regions are the result of meat species availability, environmental conditions, and traditions. Nevertheless, the stability of fermented meat products is mainly determined by a combination of acidifi cation brought about by lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and lowering of water activity (a w ) during curing and drying. In addition, biochemical and physicochemical changes occur as a result of the interactions among microorganisms, meat, fat, and processing technology, which is what produces the wide range of available fermented sausages. The main characteristics of semidry and dry fermented sausages and the most relevant products worldwide are analyzed here.