Discussion
Fermented sausages are common products throughout Europe with great diversity in production methods and organoleptic characteristics between different countries and also different regions of the same country [19]. Sausage fermentation is a well-known microbial process and ecological studies during ripening date back to the 1970s. These studies emphasize that two main populations are involved in the process. In the fermentation of sausages, the main transformations that lead to the final product involve the activity of two microbial groups: LAB and micro/staphylococci. The LAB are responsible for the acidification, while the micro/staphylococci produce lipases, eventually releasing short-chain fatty acids that are responsible for the aroma of the fermented sausage [1]. Molecular analysis of microbial changes during fermentation demostrate that by three days of maturation, these two main groups of organisms are the most abundant in the sausages [20]. Among LAB, the species most commonly determined in meat and meat products including dry sausages processed with different technologies are L. sakei, L. curvatus, L. plantarum and L. sakei being the most frequently isolated species [19,21].