Analysis of Microbiological and Certain Qualitative Properties of Pastırma Marketed in Kastamonu

This research implicates the physical, chemical and microbiological analysis of pastırma samples taken from eight different companies at three separate times of the year marketed in Kastamonu. Microbiological properties, the amount of free fatty acids, salt and residual nitrite were analyzed on the samples; pH and moisture properties tests were carried out. It is stated that the number of Micrococcus/Staphylococcus and lactic acid bacteria formed the dominant flora and the number of lactic acid bacteria and Micrococcus/Staphylococcus were 6.07-7.93 and 6.52-7.22 log cfu/g respectively. The number of yeast-mold and total aerobic mesophilic bacteria were detected as 4.09-6.51 and 6.81-7.76 log cfu/g respectively. Although it has been observed that the number of Enterobacteriaceae, which is an important criterion for quality in pastırma, is below 102 cfu/g in general, some of the samples obtained from companies C, D, F, G, K showed values above <2 log cfu/g. In the samples, pH values were determined as 5.67-6.13 on average, moisture values were determined as 47.04-52.12% on average and salt was determined as 2.98 to 8.78% by mass. The average free fatty acid and residual nitrite values were found to be 0.031-0.118% and 0.159-10.241 ppm respectively.