Safety and quality of traditional Croatian product 'Meat from tiblica'

„Meat from tiblica“, traditional product with special quality and value, is part of cultural heritage of Međimurje, North Croatia. In this study, „meat from tiblica“ was produced in household and stored in controlled conditions (8 °C) during nine months, sampled and examined monthly in triplicate. Standard microbiological tests included enumeration of aerobic mesophilic bacteria, lactic acid bacteria (LAB), coagulase negative cocci, S. aureus, enterobacteria, E. coli, yeast and moulds, enterococci, sulfite-reducing clostridia, lipolytic bacteria and detection of Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes. Physico-chemical tests included determination of pH, aw, NH3, titratable acidity, peroxide number and fatty-acid composition. Microbial population of meat and minced cooked back fat consisted of aerobic mesofilic bacteria (3.25 to 3.94 log10CFU/g and 5.62 to 6.75 log10CFU/g, respectively), lipolytic bacteria (2.72 to 4 log10CFU/g and 5.35 to 6.76 log10CFU/g, respectively), yeasts and moulds (2.42 to 4.32 log10CFU/g and 4.33 to 5.4 log10CFU/g, respectively), coagulase negative cocci (3.04 to 3.9 log10CFU/g and 5.15 to 6.34 log10CFU/g, respectively) and LAB (