Effect of High-Hydrostatic-Pressure Processing and Storage Temperature on Sliced Iberian Dry-Cured Sausage (“Salchichón”) from Pigs Reared in Montanera System

Abstract

The top-quality “salchichón” (a fermented dry-cured sausage) is manufactured from Iberian pigs reared outdoors. This work aims to evaluate the effect of hydrostatic high pressure (HHP) and storage temperature on sliced vacuum-packaged top-quality Iberian “salchichón”. Two types of “salchichón” (S1 and S2, manufactured at different companies) were processed at 600 MPa for 8 min and stored at 4 and 20 °C for 180 days. Microbiological, physicochemical, and sensory changes were evaluated. Microbiological counts were reduced by HHP treatment and also generally decreased during storage at both temperatures. Lightness and redness of slices decreased during storage at 20 °C, while yellowness values increased. Changes in color were also observed in sensory analysis of the dry-cured sausages. HHP increased lipid and protein oxidation values in S1, whereas protein oxidation increased at 20 °C in S2. S1 was more affected by HHP while S2 was more affected by the temperature of storage. Therefore, despite both products belonging to the same commercial category, slight differences in the composition of both products and/or differences in packaging determined a different behavior after HHP treatment and during storage at different temperatures.

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

“…Regarding the instrumental color, the marked initial effect of loin category and company increased slightly after storage, with additional differences appearing in C* and b* , respectively. Results match those by Contador et al ( 2021 ), who reported a similar trend in the effect of the Iberian loin category before and after storage, and those by Ramírez et al ( 2022 ) for Iberian “salchichón”. It should be noted that the effect of the company was still comparable to that of the loin category, with p < .001 for four of the coordinates (Table 3 ).…”

“…The company still affected lipid oxidation (values for company A nearly doubled those of company B) and protein oxidation (company B reached the highest values in all the groups) (Table 4 ). These results partially match those by Contador et al ( 2021 ), who reported no differences between the two loin categories in the lipid and protein oxidation after 4‐month storage, and those by Ramírez et al ( 2022 ), who reported that the initial differences between two types of “salchichón” persisted for lipid oxidation, but not for protein oxidation after 90‐day storage.…”

“…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.…”

“…Regarding the microorganisms, the decrease in the mesophilic counts for the four loin groups (Table 2 ) is in line with previous results for sliced dry‐cured loin (Campus et al, 2008 ) and Iberian “salchichón” (Cava et al, 2021 ), although for thickly sliced (2 cm instead of the usual 1–2 mm) Cebo loin (Cava et al, 2021 ), no effect was reported. 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 ).…”