Lactic acid bacteria as protective cultures in fermented pork meat to prevent Clostridium spp. growth

• Nitrite is dangerous for human health and consumers require reduction or elimination from meat products.
• The studied Lactobacillus strains are effective in contrasting Clostridium growth in vitro.
• L. plantarum PCS 20 is effective in contrasting Clostridium growth in ground meat used for sausages production.
• Protective cultures can be a feasible solution to the use of chemical agent in fermented meat.

In meat fermented foods, Clostridium spp. growth is kept under control by the addition of nitrite. The growing request of consumers for safer products has led to consider alternative bio-based approaches, the use of protective cultures being one of them. This work is aimed at checking the possibility of using two Lactobacillus spp. strains as protective cultures against Clostridium spp. in pork ground meat for fermented salami preparation. Both Lactobacillus strains displayed anti-clostridia activity in vitro using the spot agar test and after co-culturing them in liquid medium with each Clostridium strain. Only one of them, however, namely L. plantarum PCS20, was capable of effectively surviving in ground meat and of performing anti-microbial activity in carnis in a challenge test where meat was inoculated with the Clostridium strain. Therefore, this work pointed out that protective cultures can be a feasible approach for nitrite reduction in fermented meat products.