Microbiological quality and sensory evaluation of new cured products obtained from sheep and goat meat

Abstract

The present work aims to study the effect of species and seasoning time on the physicochemical, microbiological and sensory characteristics of cured legs of sheep and goats. Three cure periods were used: two for sheep and one for goat legs. Legs of lamb were cured for 7 and 8 months whereas legs of goat were cured for 8 months only. Samples were evaluated regarding pH, water activity and indicators of food microbial quality and safety. A trained panel carried out the sensory analysis, with aroma, texture, appearance and taste being the evaluated parameters. Significant differences were detected between the amount of aerobic mesophiles of the products cured during 7 months and the sheep legs cured during 8 months. Moulds and yeasts were between 1.81 × 106 ± 1.73 × 106 and 3.97 × 106 ± 5.45 × 106 colony-forming units/g, whereas total coliforms varied from 2.80 × 102 ± 4.13 × 102 to 1.31 × 104 ± 2.39 × 104. All samples were negative for toxigenic species. Concerning sensory analysis, hardness and taste persistence were the attributes that presented the highest and the lowest discriminative power, respectively. In general, the panel was able to characterise and distinguish the samples. The cured legs of goats were characterised as harder and as less succulent than those obtained from sheep. Sheep meat with larger time of cure was the brightest, whereas the one with a smaller time of cure was the most succulent. However, goat meat presented higher values of rancid and acid flavour. Sheep meat submitted to longer processing presented the most intense flavour and sheep meat with an inferior cure period presented the lowest intensity in all flavour attributes. This paper describes, for the first time in Portugal, the production and characterisation of cured legs of sheep and goats as a strategy to enhance economic value to good quality products obtained from animals of second category.

Effect of salting and ripening on the physicochemical and sensory quality of goat and sheep cured legs

“…⁎⁎⁎ P ≤ 0.001. adhesiveness and fibers feeling (P ≤ 0.001), all texture attributes, and the least discriminating between one product and another is the acid taste, aroma intensity and marbling (P > 0.05). These results are in accordance with Tolentino et al (2016) that also found that sheep and goats cured legs were better discriminated by texture attributes. Table 4 also presents the adjusted mean ± standard error of the goats and sheep cured legs sensory attributes.…”

“…Also the a w decreased successively from the slaughter to the salting and from there to the end of ripening period with a w values significantly different between sheep and goat, 0.87 and 0.83 respectively. The values found were similar to those found by several authors: for meat cured products from different species (Paleari, Moretti, Beretta, Mentasti, & Bersani, 2003) including the goat bresaola although with an pH value higher (6.48); for smoked goat ham (Ivanovic, Nesic, Pisinov, & Pavlovic, 2016); for goat and sheep meat cured mantas (Oliveira et al, 2014); as well for sheep and goat cured legs submitted at different ripenning periods (Tolentino et al, 2016) or also for beef cecina (Molinero et al, 2008). The pH and aw values found for us showed that could be an important role in controlling the meat spoiling promoting safety and shelf life stability of the products with respect to microbial growth.…”

“…The other attributes (meat and fat color, and marbling) were not significantly different (P > 0.05) for sheep or goats. Brightness was also a highly significant discriminant attribute between sheep and goats cured legs in Tolentino et al (2016) work.…”

“…In any case according Desmond (2006) before reduce the NaCl levels the microbiological shelf life and food safety of this processed products should be studied. Working with different ripening periods, Tolentino et al (2016) have evaluated the microbiological quality of goat and sheep cured legs with < 4% of salt and concluded that safety indicators were absent in all the analyzed samples. Table 1 also shows the color parameters assessed at slaughter, the end of salting period and the end of ripening process.…”

“…This meat from animals with very low commercial value is more appropriated to process and cure with salts as some of popular products as Cecina in Spain (Hierro, de la Hoz, & Ordoñez, 2004), or Brazilian Charqui (Madruga & Bressan, 2011) ore in Italy violin di capra (Fratianni, Sada, Orlando, & Nazzaro, 2008). Also with the goal to added value to depreciated meats several authors have recently studied sheep and goat processed products as Polpara, Sornprasitt, and Wattanachant (2008) studying quality characteristics of raw and canned goat meat during storage in water, brine, oil and Thay curry; Das, Anjaneyulu, Thomas, and Kondaiah (2009) studying the effect of different fats on the quality of goat meat patties; Teixeira, Pereira, and Rodrigues (2011) evaluating the effect of salting, air-drying and aging in a new goat meat product "manta"; Oliveira et al (2014) analyzing the quality of ewe and goat meat cured products; Leite et al (2015) and Paulos et al (2015) studying the properties of sheep and goat meat sausages and Tolentino, Estevinho, Pascoal, Rodrigues, and Teixeira (2016) evaluating the microbiological and sensory quality of new meat cured products obtained from sheep and goat meat of culled animals. In this context, a project among a research center (Carcass and Meat Quality and Technology Laboratory of Agriculture Scholl of Polytechnic Institute of Bragança), two breeder associations (ANCRAS -National Breed Producers Association of Serrana Goat and ACOB -National Breed Producers Association of Bragançana Sheep) and a meat manufacturing industry and Bísaro breed producer (Bísaro Salsicharia Tradicional) was developed to add value to animals with very low commercial value and consumer acceptability, processing meat that cannot be commercialized as PDO or IGP products.…”