Validation of lethality processes for products with slow come up time: Bacon and bone-in ham

Pork bellies and boneless hams were smoked or cooked using unusually long processes to determine the impact of extended come-up times on the populations of Clostridium perfringens, Salmonella enterica, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes. The products were formulated using brine formulations representative of what might be used in commercial production, and the thermal processes were more than doubled in length. Pork bellies and boneless hams were inoculated on the surface as well as 1 cm below the surface, and samples were collected every 3 h. The populations of C. perfringens (spores and vegetative cells) at internal locations of pork bellies increased by less than 1 log10 and declined significantly (approximately 3 log10/cm2) on the surface of the bellies during an extended bacon process. The populations of S. enterica, L. monocytogenes and S. aureusdid not increase during the extended bacon process. The populations of C. perfringens (spores and vegetative cells), S. aureus, S. enterica and L. monocytogenesdeclined significantly over an extended ham process. There were significant population reductions (\u3e2 log10/cm2) at 7 h (surface) and 12 h (\u3e5 log10/g; internal) for the hams. Populations of both surface and internal locations of the hams declined to a point approaching the limit of detection of the assays within 17 h

Effects of Aging on Moisture-Enhanced Pork Loins

Injection of fresh pork loins with a salt/phosphate/ lactate brine to achieve moisture-enhanced quality improvement did not affect troponin-T proteolysis and postmortem enzymatic tenderization.Consequently, the time of injection post-slaughter is not a critical factor influencing the tenderness of moisture-enhanced pork.Purge, however, was reduced by aging and greater desmin proteolysis was observed.Thus, aging prior to injection may reduce purge from moisture-enhanced pork

Nitrosylation of Myoglobin and Nitrosation of Cysteine by Nitrite in a Model System Simulating Meat Curing

Demand is growing for meat products cured without the addition of sodium nitrite. Instead of the direct addition of nitrite to meat in formulation, nitrite is supplied by bacterial reduction of natural nitrate often added as vegetable juice/powder. However, the rate of nitrite formation in this process is relatively slow, and the total ingoing nitrite is typically less than in conventional curing processes. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of the rate of addition of nitrite and the amount of nitrite added on nitrosylation/nitrosation reactions in a model meat curing system. Myoglobin was preferentially nitrosylated as no decrease in sulfhydryl groups was found until maximum nitrosylmyoglobin color was achieved. The cysteine–myoglobin model retained more sulfhydryl groups than the cysteine-only model (p \u3c 0.05). The rate of nitrite addition did not alter nitrosylation/nitrosation reactions (p \u3e 0.05). These data suggest that the amount of nitrite but not the rate of addition impacts the nitrosylation/nitrosation reactions this syste

Validation of lethality processes for products with slow come up time: Bacon and bone-in ham

Pork bellies and boneless hams were smoked or cooked using unusually long processes to determine the impact of extended come-up times on the populations of Clostridium perfringens, Salmonella enterica, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes. The products were formulated using brine formulations representative of what might be used in commercial production, and the thermal processes were more than doubled in length. Pork bellies and boneless hams were inoculated on the surface as well as 1 cm below the surface, and samples were collected every 3 h. The populations of C. perfringens (spores and vegetative cells) at internal locations of pork bellies increased by less than 1 log10 and declined significantly (approximately 3 log10/cm2) on the surface of the bellies during an extended bacon process. The populations of S. enterica, L. monocytogenes and S. aureusdid not increase during the extended bacon process. The populations of C. perfringens (spores and vegetative cells), S. aureus, S. enterica and L. monocytogenesdeclined significantly over an extended ham process. There were significant population reductions (>2 log10/cm2) at 7 h (surface) and 12 h (>5 log10/g; internal) for the hams. Populations of both surface and internal locations of the hams declined to a point approaching the limit of detection of the assays within 17 h.This is a manuscript of an article published as Sindelar, J., K. Glass, R. Hanson, J. G. Sebranek, J. Cordray, and J. S. Dickson. "Validation of lethality processes for products with slow come up time: Bacon and bone-in ham." Food Control (2019). doi: 10.1016/j.foodcont.2019.04.020.</p