A higher aw may favour bacterial growth, although a difference of 0.02 in initial aw would not seem to justify the great differences in LAB or TVC counts observed between both treatments after and before the drying stage. The different growing rates of each bacterial group might explain these results. The aw values were coherent with previous references for this type of salami, where a small calibre casing facilitated dehydration, aw being greatly reduced after 12 days’ drying. The slight variation in aw could also be due to the incomplete stan- dardization of the sausage composition, even though this was controlled with an NIR analyser during processing; whatever the case, the respective aw values tended to equilibrate by the end of drying stage.