Study on effects of automatic drying and use of fermentation agents on the physiochemical and microbial properties of wrapped rabbit meat

The effects on physicochemical and microbial properties of wrapped rabbit meat were studied in this paper,which were processing in manual climatic box to simulate the natural fermentation environment by setting temperature,humidity and wind speed,and adding microbial fermentation agents( Pediococcuspentosaceus,Staphylococcus xylosus,Staphylococcus carnosus,Lactobacillus sakei,Lactobacillus sakei and Debaromyceshansenii) 0.25 g / kg in processing wrapped rabbit. The test results indicated that the new procedure had no significant impact on moisture content and water activity compared with the traditional method.It also showed that it could accelerate the reduction in p H,leading to a final p H of the product within an acceptable range.The nitrite,N- dimethyl nitrosamine,N- diethyl nitrite and histamine level of the products in the group with the new applied procedure were 110.75,2.23,21.50,26.25 μg / kg respectively,whereas the level of these substances in the traditional processing group were 158.37,4.92,52.15,42.12 μg / kg respectively.The difference in the total amount of bacteria were mainly due to the high level of lactic acid bacteria and micrococcus,which were closely related to the sensory and flavor characteristics of the products,the level of lactic acid bacteria and micrococcus in newly processed product was 8.25 × 106,6.33 × 106 CFU / g respectively,which was much higher than in the traditional group of 4.25 × 105,1.37 × 105 CFU / g.In conclusion,the procedure of automatic drying and the use of microbial fermentation agents could reduce the level of harmful substances( nitrite and nitrosamines etc.) in wrapped rabbit meat,which could improve the safety of the final product.