The Effect of Probiotic Culture on Quality Characteristics of Sucuk

Objective: Sucuk is a dry fermented meat product that naturally contains high numbers of lactic acid bacteria. This study investigated the feasibility of incorporating the probiotic lactic acid bacteria strain Lacticaseibacillus casei 431 in sucuk production. Material and methods: For this purpose, three groups of sucuk were prepared: Group 1 with a starter culture (Latilactobacillus sakei S15 + Staphylococcus xylosus GM92), Group 2 with the probiotic culture (L. casei 431), and Group 3 combining both starter and probiotic cultures (L. sakei S15 + S. xylosus GM92 + L. casei 431). Then, the sucuk samples were subjected to physical, chemical, microbiological, and sensory analyses on the 0th, 30th, and 60th days of storage. Results and conclusion: The results demonstrated that the microbial culture factor significantly influenced the sucuk samples’ pH, L* value, a* value, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), odor, taste, and overall acceptability scores, as well as the counts of lactic acid bacteria, Micrococcus/Staphylococcus, yeasts-molds, and L. casei (P < 0.01). However, it had no significant impact (P > 0.05) on water activity, b* value, color, or texture parameters. The storage period notably affected the TBARS, L* value and lactic acid bacteria (P < 0.05) and L. casei counts (P < 0.01), whereas it did not significantly alter other examined parameters (P > 0.05).