Introduction
Mediterranean sausages maybe classified as dry fermented meat products. They are made predominantly with pure pork products and involve long ripening periods, up to several months, often without clear separation between fermentation and drying. These may be considered low- acidic meat products (final pH > 5).Shelf life is mainly determined by drying and lowered water activity.
Raw fermented sausages, in general, can be defined as products made by selecting, chopping, and mincing meat and fat, with or without offal, mixed with seasoning, spices, and authorized additives, that are then ripened and dried (cured) and, sometimes, smoked (for example, in Portugal curing is usually associated to smoking).However, regional traditions, environmental variations, family recipes, and other factors have given rise to a wide range of fermented sausages, and it can be said that there are almost as many types of sausages as there are geographical regions or ultimately manufacturers, although their production processes always require the combination of fermentation and dehydration and/or smoking. In the specific case of Mediterranean countries, including Portugal, air-dried sausages made with spices are the most common type, with relatively long ripening periods compared to central and northern European countries ,where fermentation is usually accompanied by a smoking process or a less intense drying process. In both categories of sausages, industrial development in general, also includes the use of starter cultures to standardize and control production, with some exceptions. Concerning the latter, in Portugal most of the manufacturers do not add any starters to the meat mixtures for sausages. These traditional/ethnic sausages are very different from those found for instance in the American market, where the most commonly found fermented sausages are semi cured, fermented rapidly at relatively high temperatures, with a short drying period leading, therefore, to very different organoleptic characteristics. In this paper, authors review the main types of traditional meat sausages produced in the different regions of Portugal, addressing three main issued - production, nutritional composition, and future trends.