Positive effect of combining high pressure and biopreservation treatments on lowering the bacterial growth during storage of diced cooked ham with reduced nitrite salt

Abstract

We investigated the combined effects of biopreservation and high pressure treatment on bacterial communities of diced cooked ham prepared with diminished nitrite salt. First, bacterial communities of four commercial brands of dice cooked ham from local supermarkets, were characterised and stored frozen. Second, sterile diced cooked ham, prepared with reduced level of nitrite was inoculated with two different microbiota collected from the aforementioned commercial samples together with a nisin producing Lactococcus lactis protective strain able to recover from a 500 MPa high pressure treatment. Dices were then treated at 500 MPa for 5 minutes and bacterial dynamics was monitored during storage at 8{degrees}C. Depending on samples, ham microbiota were dominated by different Proteobacteria (Pseudomonas, Serratia, Psychrobacter, or Vibrio) or by Firmicutes (Latilactobacillus and Leuconostoc). Applied alone, none of the treatments stabilized durably the growth of hams microbiota. Nevertheless, the combination of biopreservation and high pressure treatment was efficient to reduce the growth of Proteobacteria spoilage species. However, this effect was dependent on the nature of the initial microbiota, showing that use of biopreservation and high pressure treatment as an alternative to nitrite reduction for ensuring cooked ham microbial safety merits attention but still requires improvement.