A survey of the physico-chemical and microbiological quality of different pastirma types: A dry-cured meat product

Abstract

Pastirma, a traditional Turkish dry-cured meat product, is categorized as an intermediate-moisture food. It is produced from whole muscle and/or muscles obtained from certain parts of beef and buffalo carcasses. This is the first study dealing with some physico-chemical (fatty acid composition, moisture, ash, total fat, residual nitrite, pH and colour) and microbiological properties of sirt, şekerpare, bohcą and kuşgömü pastirma types. Significant differences were determined among the pastirma types in moisture (P < 0.01), ash (P < 0.01), salt (P < 0.01), total fat (P < 0.01), residual nitrite amounts (P < 0.05), stearic acid (P < 0.05), L∗ (P < 0.01) and a∗ (P < 0.05) values, total aerobic mesophylic bacteria (P < 0.01), lactic acid bacteria (P < 0.01) and Micrococcus/Staphylococcus (P < 0.01) counts. No difference (P < 0.05) was observed in average pH and b∗ value and fatty acid composition among the pastirma types except for stearic acid. However, the salt amount in all samples was above the maximum acceptable limit. Pseudomonas counts in 48.39% of pastirma samples and Enterobacteriaceae counts in 4.84% of pastirma samples were > 2.00 log colony-forming units per gram (CFU g-1).