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

Pastrma, 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 srt, ekerpare, bohca and kugomu pastrma types. Significant differences were determined among the pastrma 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 pastrma types except for stearic acid. However, the salt amount in all samples was above the maximum acceptable limit. Pseudomonas counts in 48.39% of pastrma samples and Enterobacteriaceae counts in 4.84% of pastrma samples were > 2.00log colony-forming units per gram (CFU g(-1)).