Abstract: The presence of spoilage bacteria (Lactobacillus, Pseudomonas, Enterobacter and Bacillus) is the fundamental cause of the short shelf-life of low temperature smoked and cooked sausages. In this study, one-factor-at-a-time experiments were carried out to identify sodium diacetate, sodium dehydroacetate and ε-poly-L-lysine as better preservatives for low temperature smoked and cooked sausages. The formulation of the three preservatives for enhanced efficacy to inhibit spoilage bacteria in low temperature smoked and cooked sausages was optimized by response surface methodology. A quadratic polynomial regression model was built using Box-Behnken design and analyzed. The results showed that a composite preservative comprising 0.024 g/L sodium diacetate, 0.017 g/L sodium dehydroacetate and 0.029 g/Lε-poly-L-lysine had good inhibitory effect on the growth of spoilage microorganisms in low temperature smoked and cooked sausages.

Key words: sausage, preservative, inhibition, response surface methodology