At two-week intervals, three frozen sausages of each type were defrosted indirectly under running water at 15–25 °C for 30 min. This process of thawing was found to recover the lowest number of microorganisms (Ersoy et al. 2008). Using a sterile knife, chopping board and forceps, defrosted sausage was chopped and mixed. Immediately, sausage (5 g) was removed from each sausage piece for microbial analysis and the rest was used for chemical analysis.