Addition of salt alone reduced the aerobic mesophilic counts by approximately 1 log CFU/g for 1.5% and 2 log CFU/g for 3% compared with the control at day 0 (Fig. 4). In addition, 1.5% salt was not sufficient to delay growth after the cold-chain break in the present study, but the initial 2 log reduction was maintained at day 6 for samples supplemented with 3% salt. Salt led to a light short-term bacteriostatic effect that did not last until day 12 because all of the samples (salted and non-salted) reached the same counts at the end of storage (approximately 9 log CFU/g)