194 Chapter 9
gested by Pennacchia et al. (2004) , leading
to the isolation of twenty potentially probi-
otic Lactobacillus strains, eleven of which
exhibited good adhesion capability to Caco - 2
cell layers, most of them belonging to Lb.
plantarum group (Pennacchia et al. 2006 ).
Klingberg and Budde (2006) demonstrated
the capacity of two Lb. plantarum strains to
survive the passage through the human GIT
either as freeze - dried culture or embedded in
a sausage matrix. Microencapsulation has
also been proposed as an alternative for the
incorporation of either probiotic or bacterio-
cinogenic strains. In the latter case, though,
the inhibitory action of reuterin, producing
Lb. reuteri against E. coli O157:H7, was
found to be reduced during sausage fermen-
tation compared with that of the free micro-
organism (Muthukumarasamy and Holley
2006, 2007 ).Public Health Aspects
The ability of pathogens (e.g., Salmonella
spp., E. coli , L. monocytogenes ) to survive in
many low - acid as well as low - water activity
meat products, such as fermented meat prod-
ucts, makes it unlikely that complete sup-
pression can be achieved by the application
of control measures at a single source
(Skandamis and Nychas 2007 ). Thus, effec-
tive control strategies must consider the
multiple points at which pathogens can
gain access to the human food chain. The
persistence and the ability of very small
numbers of these organisms to establish life -
threatening infections with serious long - term
clinical consequences, particularly among at -
risk sections of the human population, mean
that many elements of our food safety strate-
gies have to be improved. Measures to control
pathogens during fermented meat produc-
tion, processing, and distribution, at the
retail level and during commercial/domestic
preparation, should be considered in detail.
Therefore, the best approach to control
pathogens in fermented meat products is toing the effect of fermentation on the level of
the above - mentioned nutrients.
The substitution of NaCl and fat and the
concomitant re - formulation of fermented
sausage recipes has also been the subject of
extensive research, the former due to its rela-
tion to the development of hypertension in
sensitive individuals, and the latter due to the
high saturated fatty acid and cholesterol
content and their relation to cardiovascular
disease. Since both ingredients possess a spe-
cifi c role in the manufacture of dry fermented
sausages, this task seems to be quite chal-
lenging. Potassium chloride, potassium
lactate, glycine, manganese chloride, calcium
chloride, and calcium ascorbate (Ibanez et al.
1995, 1996, 1997 ; Gou et al. 1996 ; Gimeno
et al. 1998, 1999, 2001 ) have been examined
for their potential to substitute sodium chlo-
ride, and the difference regarding the senso-
rial quality of the end product has been
pointed out, without, however, studying the
effect on safety from a microbiological
point of view. On the other hand, fat reduc-
tion with the addition of compounds such as
inulin (Mendoza et al. 2001 ) and dietary fi ber
(Garcia et al. 2002 ) and even substitution by
olive oil (Bloukas et al. 1997 ; Muguerza
et al. 2001, 2002 ) or soy oil (Muguerza et al.
2004 ) has been studied with interesting and
promising results.
Since the idea of using probiotic starter
cultures in sausage fermentation has devel-
oped, several lactic acid bacteria have been
screened for their capacity to survive their
passage through the human gastrointestinal
tract and their possible in - site actions. Lb.
curvatus strain RM10 and Pd. acidilactici
strain P2, isolated from freeze - dried com-
mercial meat starter cultures, exhibited the
strongest capacity for surviving acidic condi-
tions and 0.30% bile salts (Erkkila and Petaja
2000 ). The suitability of three probiotic
Lb. rhamnosus strains (GG, E - 97800, and
LC - 705) to produce dry sausage has been
demonstrated by Erkkila et al. (2001). A very
effective screening procedure has been sug-