Study of the shelf life of a dry fermented sausage "salchichon" made from raw material enriched in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids and stored under modified atmospheres.

The microbiological, physico-chemical and sensory properties of salchichon with high unsaturated fat content, packed under vacuum and 20/80% CO(2)/N(2) modified atmosphere, were evaluated to determine its quality changes during storage under refrigeration. These sausages were manufactured with pork meat and pork backfat obtained from pigs fed with three different diets (control diet-CO, high oleic diet-HO and high linoleic diet-HL). In general, few significant differences were found in counts of different groups of microorganism between the three types of sausages and no difference between the packaging methods.