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The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of Staphylococcus xylosus 39, S. equorum 53, or S. vitulinus 75, previously isolated from pastırma, on the quality characteristics of pastırma, a Turkish dry-cured meat product, and to evaluate their potential use as starter cultures. The pastırma production was carried out with a traditional method. The control pastırma groups were manufactured without adding any starter culture. At the end of production, the groups were subjected to microbiological and physico-chemical analyses. The pH was above 5.5, and the aw value was below 0.90 in all groups. The strains used exhibited good adaptation to the pastırma. The S. equorum 53 decreased the thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) value in pastırma, while the S. xylosus 39 increased the redness (a*) color value. The autochthonous strains caused a decrease in the palmitic acid (C16:0). However, they had no significant effect on the stearic acid (C18:0) and the oleic acid (C18:1n-9c). A total of 41 volatile compounds were identified in the groups. S. vitulinus 75 increased both benzaldehyde and 2-methyl-3-phenylpropanal levels. In addition, the principal component analysis (PCA) of volatile compounds provided a good separation, and PC1 separated S. xylosus 39 from other groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of different curing temperatures (4 °C or 10 °C) and agents (KNO3 or NaNO2) on microbiological and physicochemical properties of pastırma and diversity of gram-positive, catalase-positive cocci (GCC+) and also to investigate some technological properties of the strains. Four different groups of pastırma were produced applying different curing temperatures and agents. After production, GCC+ isolated from pastırma were subjected to phenotypic and genotypic (16S rRNA sequencing) identification. Genotypically characterized strains were evaluated for their technological properties. In all groups, aw and pH were observed to be under 0.90 and over 5.5, respectively. In genotypic identification, 45 isolates were identified as Staphylococcus vitulinus, while other isolates identified were S. equorum (n = 15), S. saprophyticus (n = 15), and S. xylosus (n = 12). All of the strains could grow at different salt concentrations (8% and 15%) and temperatures (4 °C, 10 °C, and 37 °C). Four strains of S. saprophyticus showed strong lipolytic activity while nine strains of S. vitulinus had strong proteolytic activity. This study showed that different curing temperatures and agents are particularly effective on the microflora in pastırma; however, these factors do not cause a high diversity in GCC+ in terms of species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]