Abstract
To confirm the safety of the manufacturing process of uncooked meat products subjected to high pressure treatment, changes of microbiological and physicochemical properties of the product were determined. The changes in the number of microorganisms occurring during the manufacturing process, a decreasing trend in the number of bacteria was observed during cold smoking and dry cooling processes, even though an increase was observed during curing, soaking, and dry cooling processes, and a decrease of 102-103CFU/g was observed during high pressure treatment processing. As regard the number of microorganisms as the manufacturing process proceeded, the number Gram-negative bacteria such as Pseudomonas decreased, whereas the number of Gram-positive bacteria such as Micrococcus increased. No remarkable changes in the pH value, Volatile basic nitrogen value, Thiobarbituric acid value and Water activity value used to evaluate quality were noted during the manufacturing process. No food borne pathogenic bacteria were detected at any point during the manufacturing process. The amount of bacteria was less than 103CFU/g after 3 hours of pressure treatment at 250MPa, and it was inferred that E. coli, S. Enteritidis, S. Typhimurium, P. aeruginasa and A. hydrophila could be inactivated, with the exception of S. aureus. From these results, it was concluded that high pressure processed raw ham was a product that could be produced more hygienically and with higher quality than conventional uncooked meat products.
