Bioprotective cultures

VIGNOLO, GRACIELA M; CASTELLANO, PATRICIA; FADDA, SILVINA

Handbook of Fermented Meat and Poultry

Willey Blackwell

Lugar: Oxford; Año: 2015; p. 129 - 137

Meat products and processed meats resulted from the need topreserve meat in ancient times. Preservative and palatability effectsmust have been discovered after mixing comminuted fresh meatwith salt contaminated with nitrate, spices, or herbs, stuffing themixture into animal intestines, and then drying it. Early humanswere certainly aware of the preservative value of salt and drying,and therefore over the centuries they were able to develop curedproducts. Although bibliographical research traces the origin offermented meat products to more than 2500 years ago in China,evidence of sausage production in Europe is first documented inancient Greece, where it may have been encouraged by the existingclimate conditions (Liepe, 1983). Knowledge of the preservationof meat (dry-cured ham and fermented sausages) was inheritedby the Romans, and from them these products spread to Central,Eastern, and Northern European countries, as well as to Americaand Australia, where they are recognized as the heritage of Europeanimmigrants (Demeyer, 2004; Fadda & Vignolo, 2007).