Abstract
The influence of the starter cultures, such as Lactobacillus rhamnosus, L. plantarum, Kocuria rosea, Staphylococcus carnosus, L. plantarum, L. rhamnosus and L. paracasei, on the functional-technological and physicochemical characteristics of the pork meat during the salting is investigated in this paper. It has been proven that the use of these starter cultures in the technology of raw ba-lik products makes it possible to obtain finished products with improved quality indicators, which is promising in the food industry. It had been shown that in the pork meat samples with the starter cultures, the acidity from 5.74 pH units is more intensively decreased – to 5.52 pH units compared to the control sample (up to 5.64 pH units). Using the starter cultures based on nitrite-reducing microorganisms for the salting in 72 hours positively influenced the formation of the required colour characteristics. It had been established that the moisture-binding capacity and plasticity of the pork meat samples with the starter cultures are characterised by the increased indicators compared with the control sample – by 4.73% and 7.73% and by 2.19 cm2.g, respectively. The difference in the volatile fatty acids content in the pork meat samples with the starter cultures compared with the control sample is 22 and 33%, respectively, in 72 hours of salting. The obtained results can be used in the enterprises of the meat processing industry to produce fermented meat products, particularly raw dried logs.