As for all microorganisms, pH, temperature and aw are closely interrelated
for Salmonella growth. At optimal pH range between 6.6 and 8.2,
growth inhibition has been reported for aw values below 0.94 in media
with neutral pH (Jay, 2000), and the growth rates of Salmonella are
greatly reduced at temperatures below 15 °C, being 6.2 °C the
minimum temperature reported for the growth of S. Typhimurium
(Bell & Kyriakides, 2002). The environmental conditions of minced
meat samples inoculated in this study, although not the best, were
favorable for a certain growth of Salmonella since, in the absence of
nitrate/nitrite, counts slightly increased during storage. However, the
presence of nitrate/nitrite, even at the lowest concentration used in
this study, collaborated to maintain stable Salmonella counts.