Effect of curing salts and probiotic cultures on the evolution of flavor compounds in dry-fermented sausages during ripening.

The effect of the concentration of curing salts, the nature of the probiotic culture (free or immobilized Lactobacillus casei ATCC 393 on wheat grains) and the ripening time on the generation of volatile compounds in probiotic dry-fermented sausages was investigated. Samples were collected after 1, 28 and 71 days of ripening and subjected to SPME GC/MS analysis. All factors affected significantly the concentration of all volatile compounds. Noticeably, the content of esters, organic acids and total volatiles was significantly increased after 28 and 71 days of ripening in almost all products. In most cases, reduction of curing salts content resulted in significant increase of esters and organic acids during ripening, whereas the opposite effect was observed in carbonyl compounds at days 28 and 71. Principal Component Analysis of the semi-quantitative data revealed that primarily the ripening process affected the volatile composition.