Twenty-four hams from commercial crossbred pigs were manufactured
following the traditional procedure in two typical Italian
dry-cured ham manufacturing plants (referred to as A and B), operating
under different environmental conditions over ripening time
(Table 1). Fresh hams were salted in accordance with the producer's
custom, and undertook the process, divided into resting, washing,
drying, first maturation, fat application and final maturation
(Simoncini et al., 2007). After the early cold processing steps (3–4
months at 0–3 °C for salting and resting), hams were twice yeastinoculated:
before drying (after the washing procedure) and at the
end of first maturation period (before fat mince application), to ensure
the permanence of the inoculated population throughout the production
process (Table 1). Nine hams/manufacturing plants were surface
sprayed with 10 ml of above mentioned yeast strains suspensions
(three hams/strain), while three hams/plant were not inoculated to
allow native mycetes to grow up (naturally contaminated control).