New Insights into the Application of High-Pressure Processing and Storage Time and Temperature to Sliced Iberian Chorizo

Abstract

Producing dry-cured meats with relatively high aw and pH allows companies to cut costs to the detriment of microbial control. The purpose of this study was to evaluate for the first time the effect of High Processing Pressure (HPP) and storage temperature on the microbial counts, instrumental color, oxidation and sensory characteristics of sliced Iberian chorizo with high aw and pH. First, 600 MPa was applied for 480 s to sliced chorizo with aw: 0.88 and pH: 6.01, and the treated and untreated samples were stored at 4 or 20 °C for 90 or 180 days. HPP, storage time and storage at 20 °C were successful at decreasing the microbial counts that were initially high. HPP and the storage temperature had a limited detrimental effect, whereas the storage time had a marked adverse effect on oxidation and some sensory traits. Despite the high aw and pH, no safety issues arose initially or during the storage at 4 or 20 °C. In conclusion, for chorizo with high aw and pH favoring high microbial counts, HPP may be an effective hurdle without a noticeable detrimental effect, and the economically convenient storage at 20 °C might be beneficial despite causing moderate quality loss.

High‐pressure processing applied to sliced dry‐cured Iberian loin: Effect of category, company, and storage temperature

“…These results partially match previous results, which reported lower counts for the mesophilic bacteria and molds and yeast using 20°C than at 4°C for 120day storage in Cebo loin (Cava et al, 2021). Although there is no previous information about the effect of the storage temperature on the LAB in loin, the results (Tables 3 and 4) are generally in line with those reported in chorizo, with lower counts after storage at 20°C than at 4°C (Carrapiso et al, 2023;Martin et al, 2021;Trejo et al, 2021). The lower counts at 20°C than at 4°C in those microorganisms also matches the results for the L. monocytogenes counts in Cebo loin (Cava et al, 2021) and other dry-cured Iberian products (Cava et al, 2020(Cava et al, , 2021.…”

“…This partially matches previous results on Cebo loins reporting a limited effect, only significant on a* (Cava et al, 2009) or L* (Cava et al, 2021). It also matches the results found on the instrumental color, reporting no effect for Iberian chorizo (Carrapiso et al, 2023;Cava et al, 2020) and for Iberian salchichón, reporting no effect (Cava et al, 2021) or a slight effect (Ramírez et al, 2022). Conversely, a strong effect of HPP affecting both L* and a* was reported in dry-cured non-Iberian loin (Campus et al, 2008).…”

“…The effect of storage temperature had never been reported in this product to our knowledge. Recent studies on Iberian "salchichón" (Ramírez et al, 2022) and chorizo (Carrapiso et al, 2023) reported no effect or a decrease in the coliform counts, which match some of our results for some loin groups, but not for others, which may be due to the differences in the initial characteristics. Therefore, despite the beneficial effect of 20°C to decrease some microbial counts, the results for the coliforms challenge the application of such temperatures during long storage.…”

“…Similar inconsistencies in the effect of HPP have been reported in Iberian "salchichón", with both a decrease and no effect on "salchichón" from two companies (Ramírez et al, 2022), and in Iberian chorizo, with a decrease in sliced chorizo (Carrapiso et al, 2023), but also both a decrease in half pieces and an increase in sliced chorizo (Martin et al, 2021;Trejo et al, 2021). This inconsistency indicates that the effect of HPP may depend on some product characteristics, such as thickness, and the initial counts (Carrapiso et al, 2023). Our results do not reveal any influence of the loin category or company on the HPP effect, both interactions being not significant (p = .251 and .084, respectively).…”

High-Hydrostatic-Pressure-Stabilized White Grape Pomace to Improve the Oxidative Stability of Dry-Cured Sausages (“Salchichón”)

“…Despite lipid and protein oxidation being generally intertwined, our results showed that there was not a strong correlationship (R: 0.394, p = 0.086). Previous studies have also reported that both parameters are not always affected to the same extent by several factors in dry-cured products [ 48 , 51 ], since they measure compounds generated at different stages of the oxidation reactions. The lack of effect of the pomace on protein oxidation ( Table 3 ) matches the results from a previous study applying the same pomace to burgers, which reported no differences after 7-day storage, and an inconsistent effect before storage [ 20 ].…”