Abstract: Improved Chengkou bacon, a Chinese traditional smoked meat product, was investigated for changes and correlations of quality parameters such as sensory quality, total bacterial count (TBC), acid values (AV), peroxide values (POV) and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) values when stored at 25, 30 or 35 ℃. Shelf life prediction at different storage temperatures was studied as well. The results showed that the sensory quality of smoked bacon during different storage temperatures declined gradually. The TBC, AV, POV and TBARS value rose over storage time and the rate of increase at different storage temperatures was in the decreasing order: 35 ℃ > 30 ℃ > 25 ℃. The first order kinetic equations were calculated according to the Arrhenius curves for peroxide values, which were selected as the key factor for the shelf life prediction model through the Pearson correlation coefficients between sensory score and physicochemical indicators at different storage temperatures. As a result, the predicted shelf life values smoked bacon obtained from the first order kinetic equations were 459, 93 and 24 days at 12、25、37 ℃ at the sensory rejection point, respectively, which were in good agreement with the actual ones.

Key words: Chinese traditional bacon, storage, temperature, quality variation, shelf life