Lipolysis in dry cured sausages as affected by processing conditions

Changes of phospholipids and free fatty acids during fermentation and ripening steps of the Spanish dry cured sausage ('salchichón') process have been analyzed by studying the effects of manufacturing conditions; namely starter addition, pre-ripening and drying temperature. Phospholipid concentration of all types of samples considered (with or without starter, preripened or not) showed no important changes during fermentation, but different behaviour was observed during ripening in relation to sample type and drying temperature. At 8 °C concentrations did not change in sausages without starter and suffered a moderate decrease in samples with starter. At 16 °C the decrease was pronounced in samples without starter and much more in those with starter. Pre-ripening had no effect on phospholipid concentration. Free fatty acids increase slightly with pre-ripening, but during fermentation pre-ripened samples showed no more variation, whereas in non-preripened samples an important increase was observed. These results were similar in samples with and without starter. During the ripening step, samples with starter dried at 8 °C showed a higher increase of free fatty acids than those without starter, with no influence of the pre-ripening. At 16 °C all samples showed a higher increase than any sample dried at 8 °C. The maximum was found with non-preripened samples without starter and the minimum with pre-ripened ones, also without starter. Sausages with starter showed an intermediate increase with no effect of pre-ripening.