Periodical determination of some microbiological characteristics of sucuk samples produced at some big meat plants in the city of Afyon

Abstract

Some microbiological characteristics (TAMB, Enterobacteriaceae, yeast-mold, S. aureus, C. perfringens numbers) of sucuk samples, which were the products of the 5 major meat plants and marketed in the province of Afyon, were determined. Six samples were taken periodically from 5 different firms, so total of 30 samples were analysed, over 3 months. Minimum, maximum and average values for the different microbiological counts were as follows respectively, 3.0×104 CFU/g, 2.2×108 CFU/g and 2.9×107 CFU/g for TAMB: <10 CFU/g, 1.1×104 CFU/g and 1.3×103 CFU/g for Enterobacteriaceae; and <10 CFU/g 1.4×105 CFU/g and 1.2×104 CFU/g for yeast-mold; and 2.0×101 CFU/g, 7.1×105 CFU/g and 3.8×104 CFU/g for S. aureus. In the 93.33% of the sucuk samples C. perfringens was not determined, C. perfringens was not determined in 93.33% of the sucuk samples. However, by the application of this cultural method, 6.67% of the sucuk samples gave a 10 CFU/g presumptive C. perfringens count. All of these results were revealed a high presence of microbiological count in the samples, and most of the sucuk samples were found to be low quality in terms of their microbiological characteristics. Also, there was a wide variation in the microbiological profile of the samples, depending upon the different processing consignment. It was concluded, that this variation largely depended upon non-standardized production methods, insufficiently and differently applied technological and hygiene practice, the varying quality of raw materials, and the lack of starter cultures in sucuk processing.