Data from “tube sausages” (TS, see Materials and methods
Section 2.4) provided additional insights into the effect of aw on
VTEC reductions during DFS production. The main difference between
sausages and TS was the very limited drying obtained in the TS leading
to a mean final aw of 0.954 in the TS. This also provided lower mean
VTEC reductions in TS compared to conventional sausages
(log10= 1.04 versus log10= 2.19, respectively; values based on
mean VTEC reductions of all sausages). These differences mainly
indicate the effect of aw on VTEC reductions in sausages. The relative
effects of the variables levels of NaCl, NaNO2 and glucose were highly
similar in both TS and sausages (not shown).