Investigating the effect of incubation time and starter culture addition level on quality attributes of indirectly cured, emulsified cooked sausages

A process of “natural curing” utilizes vegetable juice/powder and a nitrate reducing starter culture to generate cured meat characteristics. The objective was to determine the effect varying levels of a mixed-strain bacterial starter culture (SC) and incubation time (INC) had on the quality characteristics of indirectly cured sausages. Four treatments (TRT) (TRT 1: 0.01% SC, 0 min INC; TRT 2: 0.01% SC, 90 min INC; TRT 3: 0.02% SC, 0 min INC; TRT 4: 0.02% SC, 90 min INC) and a control (C) were investigated. TRTs 2 and 4, and C revealed higher (P < 0.05) CIE a* redness values and greater (P < 0.05) cured pigment concentrations than TRTs 1 and 3 at days 0 and 14 while TRTs 2, 3, 4, and C were also redder (P < 0.05) than TRT 1 at days 28, 56, and 84. The results indicated the use of an incubation step was more critical than increasing the level of SC.